10 ways to be a better doctor, without picking up a medical book.
Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity. - Hippocrates
We all know we need to study, but that’s pretty obvious. This post is about the other side of medicine.The side that you can’t necessarily get from a book. There’s no ‘secret’ to becoming a good doctor, at least not one anyone hands out to you, but there are skills and ways of looking at things we can try as we go along.
Learn to observe other people, rather than judge them. This means take time to learn about lives far removed from your own. Watch documentaries, read their stories and try to engage with how other people may experience the world in a very different way than you do. This is important, because your patients are going to come from all walks of life, and it’s hard to serve people if you cannot see them as anything other than a body, or the other. I even think that reality TV has its place in this; yes, it is sensationalised and probably has a script that does not address nearly enough issues, but it still allows some people a voice that would otherwise never be heard.
Related to this; you are so lucky to live in an age where people can share their experiences freely over the internet. Your forebears could go their entire lives without meeting a patient with a particular condition. Whereas now there are support groups and information pages; places where people wish to openly share their experiences so that others understand what they face. Seek out the words of the marginalised and the sick. Read blogs by different marginalised groups, including people with illnesses and the disabled. Read, but do not comment. Or at least, do not comment as a clinician; they do not need or want your medical opinion, or your defense of medicine in general. If you must comment, do so as a sympathetic human towards another. You are not there to teach them, but to learn. Online, there is a need for both of us to carve out spaces to vent, but it is usually best if we do not intrude on each other. Give them the space to process and to heal.
Listen to people’s stories. As a med student, your job is to learn, but it’s also to listen to patients. You have no idea how much of a privilege it is for people to trust you with their deepest secrets. Letting them share their story is sometimes an important part of making people feel better; do not underestimate this power. In busier times you might be tempted to skip over the talky bits, but remember, if at all possible, your job should be to try to make people feel better, as well as make them better.
Read books. Pick up a Russian classic, or Dickens, or Shakespeare, or Aeschylus or Terry Pratchett or Harry Potter, or whatever you enjoy, but take your time to explore the human condition as others have seen it. Perhaps even write your own. I think it’s interesting that med schools sometimes prefer you to have done all sciences for A level, when really I think I learned as many useful things in, say English class as I did in physics. This doesn’t just refer to books, by the way, but to the arts in general. See plays, enjoy musicals, mull over poetry, and let yourself wonder about human nature.
Take a life drawing class. Or just look up some artist drawing reference and have a go. You don’t have to be in front of a naked person if that’s too awkward, there are lots of perfectly artistic references online that aren’t inherently sexual. This isn’t just about drawing; it doesn’t even matter if the pictures that come out aren’t very realistic. The important thing here is to learn to observe the body as a collection of shapes and become familiar with its undulations. Our job relies a lot on observation, and for that we need familiarity. It’s also about seeing the body as more than a sexual form; nudity does not have to be either embarrassing or sexual. For many people, the only experience they have of other people’s nude bodies is through sexual contact, and there can be a lot of emotions or awkwardness attached to this, particularly for the younger or less experienced students. The more comfortable you are with the human body, the more comfortable your disrobed patients will feel when you examine them.
Play some video games. Play sports. Play an instrument. Draw. Pick up juggling. Knit. Do something you enjoy, but work on your manual dexterity and spacial awareness. It’s particularly useful if you want to be a surgeon, but it’s fun even if you don’t. Your job will be a very tactile one; we rely on our hands to examine, to carry out procedures and to operate. There’s nothing like the feeling of absolute precision you get when you nail a procedure, or do something just right. Also, hobbies are important.
Teach others. Part of our job is actually teaching the next generation of doctors, so the more comfortable you learn to be with imparting your knowledge, the better. This doesn’t have to be medical, and it doesn’t have to mean powerpoint slides or big talks. Sometimes it’s explaining a topic to your friend in a different way so that they can understand it better. Sometimes it’s taking a wannabe med student through the application process, or sharing your experiences. Teaching takes many forms.
Observe your seniors. Think about their actions, reflect on what they did well, and what you could learn from them; we can gain a lot of skills through observing our seniors in how they interact with patients, for example. Sometimes we also learn what not to do, and that’s also a really valuable lesson. There are doctors we wish we could one day be like, and doctors we vow we will never become. Remember both, as you go along.
Talk with your peers and reflect. We learn from experience; but we can also learn from each other. I’m not just talking about technical knowledge, though I approve of opportunistic learning wherever we may find it. I mean learn about their experiences. What worked, what didn’t, what you or they might do differently next time. The kinds of close friendships you form with friends or colleagues, in which you can truly share your worst fears and your biggest worries about your practice; these are the friendships to cherish. Reflection doesn’t always need company; self-reflection is an important part of our training, and that starts here. You don’t have to write it down, you don’t have to tell anyone, if you don’t want. But reflecting on what you’ve done, how it went, and what you can learn from it is an important part of our growth. If you think you could have done better, don’t beat yourself up; formulate a strategy for doing better next time; these are habits we form through trying again and again.
Keep an eye on what’s happening in the medical world. And I don’t just mean things like ‘another statin has been invented that cuts stroke risk by 0.01% compared to current best treatments. I mean that you should take an interest in current events on a wider scale. How is politics affecting healthcare? How are marginalised groups affected? What’s happening with your contracts and working conditions? Are there any cases in the news (whether patients or doctors), and what is going on with them? How will they affect your practice? So many things that go on in the world could have a huge effect on your life as a practicing doctor, so don’t let them pass you by.
I don’t usually head in the clickbaity direction, but I couldn’t pass it up when I realised I had ten points. There’s obviously a lot more about becoming a doctor than whatever can be contained in any list, but I hope this has given some food for thought. At the very least, I want you to remember that it’s not just about memorising medical textbooks.
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