Sticking It Out
A slug of different, eye-opening books arrived at the local library's new book shelf recently. Usually populated by donations from the community, the new book shelf always has something new and interesting. For me, making my selections new and interesting and strategic is always a challenge. Strategy, luckily, is personal as well, so these new books about the craft of medicine and science are fine.
Indian family immigrates to America. Bright parents foster intellectual capacities of their children. Children succeed beyound all expections. They - the parents and the children - feel uncertainty along the way. That's a story we've all heard before. Indeed, it is the American experience. So what makes Juhar's book on being a doctor special?
Uncertainty is clearly part of the experience. One kid gets his PhD in physics only to decide that maybe it is better to complete his training, not in physics, but in medicine like his brother. He's got the smarts, obviously. Now, does he have the gumption? And that's the point. His discovery that medicine is formulaic, almost to the extreme, is disheartening. But (and now we're getting more strategic) even a formulaic interaction with a patient is always made better by the ability to actually listen to what the patient is telling the doctor. The biggest problem for the young doctor isn't his lack of knowledge, it is his inability to listen carefully early on. Of course, that lack of knowledge forces extra study and grows the ability to ask more senior interns for help. Medicine is formulaic, requires continual study, and forces very bright folks to rely on others for advice.
Interestingly, this is what a bright CEO does as well. CEOs don't havee all the information they need. Neither do doctors. They both have to move themselves and others based on their training, their intuition and advice they receive from others, often in an environment demanding rapid decision-making.
Reference
Jauhar, Sandeep. Intern. A Doctor's Initiation. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008.