Incubating thoughts
And there you are, at the moment you knew it was about to come. You feel you cannot stand another day as a physician. You want to leave. You’ve decided you’re going to leave. You could leave now. But now you’re in the middle of your medical specialisation. You’ve been on a path for nearly a decade, and now you’re nearing its conclusion. How can you walk away? You make a decision. I don’t know if…
You say you want to be a doctor. Have you ever been a doctor? No, you haven’t. So you don’t want to be a doctor. You think you want to be a doctor. Detach. Don’t go through medical school as if it’s your one and only possibility. You may discover that you do, in fact, want to be a doctor. You may discover that you want to be anything but a doctor. And that’s OK. Infekta
Walking the path to excellence takes years and years. You become satisfactory, then good, then very good, and then eventually excellent. But you think you shouldn’t be excellent. You think you should be extraordinary, and right now. Well, it’s not going to happen. Infekta
In theory, any theme is good for you to spend time on. If you have a hobby, a subject of interest, or a project that you wish to maintain during your medical training, you should. [I assume you’re doing no harm to anyone/anything...] If you don’t have it, you will probably often think that you MUST have it. Just be thoughtful about it. Is this the time to add additional complex demands to your…
Some time ago, I saw a nationwide medical organisation advertising a training course for doctors on a particular spreadsheet software. But I still haven’t seen it advertising a training course that teaches doctors about the tools, technologies, and other professionals they could rely on so that they wouldn’t need to open a spreadsheet ever again. Infekta
They talk about how committed they are to recruiting young doctors for their medical training programmes and turning them into exceptional professionals in their chosen specialties. I see how committed they are to putting doctors in the emergency room. Infekta
In your work as a physician, the notes, the books, the files, the apps, the internet, the phone, the algorithms, the colleagues, the Gods may not be there. Your knowledge is. Know. Infekta
If you’re a doctor in a management position because you wanted a raise, because you were old enough, because you were senior enough, because you thought you deserved it, or because it was the expected move in your career, think about whether you’re really the right person for the job. Infekta
Some doctors wish they could work only in an inpatient environment. Some wish they could work only in an outpatient environment. Some wish they could work only in home care. Some wish they could work only in healthcare settings. Some wish they could work only in the emergency room. Some wish they could work only in pre-hospital emergency care. Some wish they could only perform diagnostic…
If you’ve spent your time and energy making a medical communication material, don’t just share it with the colleagues in the department or the attendees at the scientific meeting. Share it with the world. Infekta