During my internal medicine rotation, I had the opportunity to work closely with Dr. A who was one of the best attending teachers I've had in medical school. We had weekly meetings with Dr. A, who taught us the basics of presenting and writing up a patient. He guided us through receiving helpful feedback from the team. He pushed us to come up with tangible goals for improvement and think thoughtfully about patient interactions. And as we were scheduling our final meeting of the rotation with Dr.A, he boldly said that this last meeting will be the most important thing we will learn in medical school. THE most important thing we will learn?? I questioned whether any lesson could truly hold such value, and how such a lesson could be taught in one brief session.
Then during our final meeting, Dr. A gave us a hand out with the title, “Things I Wish They Taught in Medical School.”1 The article discusses physicians who have compromised their own quality of life for medicine and became “burned out,” ultimately translating to failed relationships with family members and patients. Medicine can be a stressful profession where people work long hours and have to deal with horrible grim situations, often including death. Doctors are not always given the skills necessary to prevent distress and impairment and can become emotionally overloaded resulting in great losses. So this paper asked 1200 physicians who have had significant consequences including “lost practices, marriages, and self-esteem” and asked them, “What do you wish you would have learned in residency or medical school training?” They synthesized the answers into 13 points or guidelines- which is what Dr. A provided us
Upon reflection, I understood why this may be the most important thing we learn in medical school. Unless we are able to stay mentally healthy and avoid “burnout” we are unable to use our clinical skills and knowledge to provide quality care for our patients. There is a lot of effort that goes into training to become a doctor – hundreds of pages of power points being jammed into my head at 3 in the morning, thousands of questions done on Qbank while cursing after MANY wrong answers, and patient interviewing skills gained after learning from various awkward interactions. All of this effort and newly acquired skills may all become meaningless if I become so burned out that I start to deteriorate and become unable to take care of my patients.
Thus, I hope to write and reflect on one or more of the guidelines listed in the article “Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in Training.”1 In this way, I hope to instill these lessons in my life and integrate healthy mental practices so that I too, can one day pass down one of the most important lessons that I learned to future generation of care-givers.
“Things I wish they had taught me in Training
1) Setting life priorities
2) The importance of being my own best friend
3) The importance of comfortable alone-time
4) The importance of vacations
5) Dealing with sensuality and sexuality
6) The consequences of overwork
7) Dealing with grief, failure, and disappointment
8) How to appropriately share my feelings
9) How to say, “I don’t know.”
10) How to let go of should and of my needs to rescue
11) How to say no and still feel good
12) How to leave my work at the office
13) The dangers of self-medication”
References
1. Pfifferling JH. Things I wish they taught in medical school. Resident and Staff Physician 1990; 36:85-92
JHR
Then during our final meeting, Dr. A gave us a hand out with the title, “Things I Wish They Taught in Medical School.”1 The article discusses physicians who have compromised their own quality of life for medicine and became “burned out,” ultimately translating to failed relationships with family members and patients. Medicine can be a stressful profession where people work long hours and have to deal with horrible grim situations, often including death. Doctors are not always given the skills necessary to prevent distress and impairment and can become emotionally overloaded resulting in great losses. So this paper asked 1200 physicians who have had significant consequences including “lost practices, marriages, and self-esteem” and asked them, “What do you wish you would have learned in residency or medical school training?” They synthesized the answers into 13 points or guidelines- which is what Dr. A provided us
Upon reflection, I understood why this may be the most important thing we learn in medical school. Unless we are able to stay mentally healthy and avoid “burnout” we are unable to use our clinical skills and knowledge to provide quality care for our patients. There is a lot of effort that goes into training to become a doctor – hundreds of pages of power points being jammed into my head at 3 in the morning, thousands of questions done on Qbank while cursing after MANY wrong answers, and patient interviewing skills gained after learning from various awkward interactions. All of this effort and newly acquired skills may all become meaningless if I become so burned out that I start to deteriorate and become unable to take care of my patients.
Thus, I hope to write and reflect on one or more of the guidelines listed in the article “Things I Wish They Had Taught Me in Training.”1 In this way, I hope to instill these lessons in my life and integrate healthy mental practices so that I too, can one day pass down one of the most important lessons that I learned to future generation of care-givers.
“Things I wish they had taught me in Training
1) Setting life priorities
2) The importance of being my own best friend
3) The importance of comfortable alone-time
4) The importance of vacations
5) Dealing with sensuality and sexuality
6) The consequences of overwork
7) Dealing with grief, failure, and disappointment
8) How to appropriately share my feelings
9) How to say, “I don’t know.”
10) How to let go of should and of my needs to rescue
11) How to say no and still feel good
12) How to leave my work at the office
13) The dangers of self-medication”
References
1. Pfifferling JH. Things I wish they taught in medical school. Resident and Staff Physician 1990; 36:85-92
JHR