How to be an Authentic Doctor #23: Keep Learning
In my experience, when young doctors first start seeing patients they do a good job of keeping up with the medical literature. At least I did and I never considered myself overly zealous. I wanted to recheck everything I was doing just to make sure (since there was no one overseeing me anymore). I think I was good about this for a while and then there were some natural lapses. This occurred when life was crazy or when the schedule was overcrowded or when I was burning out. It also occurs when you get so seasoned that sometimes you don’t know that you don’t even know. You ignore the little things and gloss over some things (minor abnormalities in the labs, etc.). My recommendation is to get your house in order so that you find your passion for medicine again. Then you will start caring enough to retain what you read or see in a lecture versus going through the mandated motions than many of us do now. When life and the clinic slow down then you really care enough to spend the time researching all the little things you would normally blow off. You may want to know the pathophysiology of the dying beta cells in a diabetic. You may want to know the best way to treat an achilles tendinosis (which is not tendonitis). I know this sounds easier then it is to do but there are ways to find your passion again and keep learning. If you aren’t learning and growing then you are probably going in the opposite direction which will make you a mediocre doctor. You don’t want to be that because authentic doctors are not mediocre.
Keep up the good work.
It’s a good indicator of burnout when we lose our curiosity. Remember the undergrad conversations about science and medicine? I wish I could regain that curiosity and enthusiasm and lose some of my passion for politics.
Yeah right. In between keeping up with the uncompensateable paperwork, who the hell has the time?
I have to leave the area to go to meetings to soak up any new information. I am very incredulous with some of the bull crap research that’s passed off as gospel these days. Plus, no patient is under any obligation to follow what we tell them. Look at the obesity epidemic.
As an example, I eat right, keep my weight down but don’t have time to exercise. Plus I sure as heck am not getting rich. Stay away from FP/primary care. It was good for 22 years but is heading towards persona non grata now.
I have always agreed with you but I believe there is hope. We have one chance. One. DPC.
It’s not always so much about keeping up to date as being sure what you think you know is true. One of the comments on this page seems to imply the doctor thinks obesity is more dangerous than a sedentary lifestyle, which was never what the science was saying.
So true. I’m reading/listening to a great book, Mindset by Carol Dweck and she talks about a fixed or a growth mindset. Encourages you to embrace challenges and opportunities to expose what you don’t know so that you can learn. Fascinating.