The Medical Definition of “Pimp”
I’ll often use “pimp” in a sentence, and non-medical folks give me a strange look. So, to set the record straight:
pimp, verb. To question a medical person lower than oneself on the spot about a medical fact or truism to see if said person knows the answer show how smart or dumb the person is in front of a group.
Examples:
- “Man, my attending pimped me mercilously about acid-base disorders in my patient, when I’d only seen her for 20 minutes!”
- I cannot believe my intern started pimping me about physiology in front of the attending. He’s supposed to be on my side!
- It was great. My resident was pimping me about medication dosages and I got them all right.
We just had that discussion in the MEDED Clinic recently as everyone was trying to explain the meaning of “pimp” in the medical/teaching context.
DAD
To an Resident foreign medical graduate, which made it more difficult.
i work for a fantastic sonologist (Radiologist w/a specialty in ultrasound) who regularly plays “pimp the sonographer,” but not usually in front of people. i LOVE IT. i love having my skillz sharpened & tested. well, my knowledge. and i STILL don’t get the menorrhaghia, metromenorrhagia, metrorrhagia thing after all this school and all this clinical experience. is it ME? i failed the pimpage miserably on that one the other day, sigh.
kcd
ps thanks for your acidosis thingy. wish i had had that BEFORE i spent a semester on it in physio. . . yours cuts to the chase.
Your definition is accurate, but as far as its etymology, PIMP is an acronym (I believe from “The House of God” GOD by Samuel Shem, MD).
PIMP stands for Put In My Place