Students often ask me, “should I become
a doctor?”
That’s a highly personal question that I cannot answer for you.
But what I can tell you are the traits that make for great doctors.
If you can identify with these 6 signs, chances are you’ll be a phenomenal physician.
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
For those who are new here, my name is Dr. Kevin Jubbal.
I earned my M.D. from UC San Diego and matched into plastic surgery.
If you’d like to know more about my story, the realities of being a doctor, and what
it was like to do plastic surgery, visit my vlog channel.
Link in the description below.
The first trait is a keystone of sorts.
Without resilience, you probably won’t get to the point of being able to call yourself
a doctor.
That’s because the path to becoming a fully licensed and board certified physician is
arduous.
During the four years in undergrad, you’re competing with other brilliant college pre-meds
to earn your seat at medical school, and your medical school pre-requisite courses and the
the MCAT are no joke.
Next up, just when you thought you knew how to study and be efficient, medical school
comes in like a wrecking ball.
You’ll spend the first two years learning more knowledge than you thought possible,
culminating in the most challenging and high stakes test of your life – USMLE Step 1.
Next, you'll spend two years in your clinical rotations, or clerkships,
followed by Step 2CK and then you’ll do the application process all over again, this
time applying to residency.
Once in residency, it’s a marathon to finish with anywhere from 3-7 additional years,
plus time for further sub-specialization in fellowship.
The path to becoming a doctor is long and challenging, but that’s not why you need
to be resilient.
Everyone faces unforeseen obstacles along the way – that’s just life.
Facing and overcoming those obstacles while still completing the most challenging professional
professional training in the world requires great resilience – the ability to bounce back.
For me, that was overcoming Crohn’s colitis, family emergencies, and financial hardship
all concurrently during my college career.
For others it’s losing a loved one, or becoming injured in a freak accident, and for others
it’s overcoming deeply ingrained bad study habits that result in subpar grades and MCAT
scores.
If you need help getting better marks, check out our website.
It’s what we’re here for.
While resilience is important, it’s only half of the equation.
When things aren’t working, the answer isn’t to get up and keep doing the same things over
and over expecting a different result – that’s just insanity.
Rather, it’s to get up and adapt.
If you’re adaptable, this will be your superpower in the journey to becoming a doctor.
As a pre-med, being adaptable means navigating the highly competitive and cutthroat landscape
in university.
It means trying new things and failing, but more importantly learning from your mistakes
and continuously improving.
It means figuring out why you’re not getting straight A’s, then going to Med School Insiders
to learn how to study more effectively, and adapting your study strategies until you’re
getting stellar grades.
Hit the like button if any of my videos have helped you improve your grades.
As a medical student, being adaptable is taking everything up a notch.
It means looking at why you’re not getting a good night’s rest and adapting your morning
and nightly rituals to improve your sleep, which increases your effectiveness during
the day time.
And yes, you should be getting adequate sleep even when you’re waking up at 3:30 AM every
day when you’re on surgery.
It means totally overhauling your study habits once more because what worked in college isn’t
is not going to cut it in medical school.
It means figuring out how to be useful in not only the operating room, but also the
delivery room, or the psych ward, or the pediatric ICU.
It means adapting to the different personalities of your different attending physicians who
are in different specialties, because what gets you an Honors in surgery is not necessarily
what gets you an Honors in pediatrics.
As a resident, being adaptable means becoming even more self-reliant on your own systems
than you were as a medical student.
External structure, pressure, and deadlines are reduced in residency, but now a failure to be at the
top of your game translates to lesser care for your patients.
Adaptability as a resident means taking responsibility and ownership of your patients, and it means
adapting to the highly variable demands on each rotation.
And as an attending physician, you will still have to adapt. Now you will be adapting to the constantly changing practice
of medicine.
Confidence is necessary to be an effective physician, but it should not be confused with
arrogance.
No matter how smart or hard working you are, you’ll never know all there is to know in
medicine.
The amount of information is too vast, and it expands every day with newly published
research articles.
You will face many days where you don’t know the answer, or when new research contradicts
your prior understandings.
For that reason, a willingness to admit gaps in your knowledge is necessary.
At the same time, don’t let the expanse of medical information scare you into thinking
that you’ll never be good enough.
Imposter syndrome is surprisingly common, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Feigned confidence acts as a thin veil that can easily be disturbed, but real confidence
is earned through diligent work and experience.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
It’s all about your systems.
You start off not getting the results you want.
You assess, adapt, and implement new systems.
You get a small win.
From there you repeat, again and again, assess, adapt, and implement.
Each win gives you a little more confidence, allowing you to take on bigger risks.
At that point, you’ll have the confidence to walk into the operating room without second
guessing yourself.
And trust me, the last thing your patient or healthcare team wants to see is a surgeon
that isn’t confident in themself.
But remember, be humble, and never let it get to your head.
Being book smart is important, no doubt about that, but what separates good from great physicians
is bedside manner.
Developing emotional intelligence to be a great listener, an astute observer, and empathetic
to one’s patients is key in establishing trust.
And trust is one of the foundational components of an effective doctor-patient relationship.
Often times, listening to your patients carefully about their symptoms and medical history will
be just as important as the physical exam.
Clues that point towards the right diagnosis may be hidden in the patient’s complaint,
and you need to sort what’s relevant from what is not.
Patients may also be hesitant to share certain details, particularly when it comes to insecurities
or situations of abuse.
Again, establishing trust is key to allow open communication and an avenue to provide
the care that they need.
Contrary to what many people think, being a doctor is not about diagnosing diseases
and prescribing medications.
Telling a patient what to do, how to eat, and how often to exercise is not an effective
way to help.
Great physicians empower their patients to take ownership of their health and wellbeing.
In medical school, we focused on motivational interviewing as a vital tool in our repertoire.
This method of interaction focuses on listening to a patient’s concerns and using a stepwise
approach to find what sort of interventions are actually realistic.
A good plan that someone can stick to is better than the perfect plan that has zero adherence.
Compassion is showing kindness, care, and a willingness to help another.
Some people are born more compassionate than others, but as with all the traits we’ve
listed, this is something that can definitely be developed.
The ever increasing bureaucratic sludge of healthcare is making medicine less about medicine,
and more about billing, charting, and regulations.
Compassion, and remembering that being a physician is a tremendous privilege, will go a long
way in keeping you sane.
Those lacking emotional intelligence or compassion are prone to treating patients as diseases
rather than as people.
The patient is not just a list of medical problems and medications.
Your patients won’t value how many publications you have, but rather whether or not you actually
care about them.
And as we already discussed, this is foundational in trust and mutual respect, which is necessary
to be an effective physician.
Despite what people have told you, being a doctor isn’t about being smart.
It’s about having the right work ethic.
You don’t have to be brilliant to pass the MCAT, the USMLE, or your board exams.
In fact, if you were a neuroscience major, like I was, or studied another conceptually
challenging major like mathematics, physics, or bioengineering, chances are that your college
major was more conceptually challenging than what you’ll learn in medical school.
For more conceptually challenging classes, you can walk in on test day and figure out
many of the difficult problems.
In medicine, you’re hosed if you didn’t adequately memorize the information.
Where medical school is tremendously challenging is less in concepts and critical thinking,
and more in the vast amount of information you must memorize.
If you need help on how to memorize more effectively, I’ve made several videos just for you.
Links are in the description below.
No matter how smart you are, you’ve got to put in the time in order to learn and memorize
the vast quantities of information.
Only once you have a solid foundation of knowledge can you begin to develop more advanced clinical
judgement and be the best physician you can be.
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This list was by no means exhaustive.
Let me know in the comments what other qualities make for great physicians.
If you liked the video, let me know with a thumbs up, and if you weren’t a fan, I don’t
mind if you leave a thumbs down.
Much love to you all, and I will see you guys in that next one.