1/ (thread) My #adviceForNewDoctors : yes, you need to start with "first, do no harm."

But that’s an insufficient promise. when you decided you were going to do this whole ‘doctor’ thing you did it to do some good—to be better than good

2/ your MD allows you to bear witness to the times of deepest joy and sorrow of humanity. Don’t dismiss those moments as incidental to ‘a job’—that tugging on your own heart you feel is part of what makes you a great physician. #adviceForNewDoctors

3/ Don’t be a jerk. Remember that “Compassion is of little value if it just remains an idea. It must motivate how we respond to others and be reflected in all our thoughts and actions” (Dalai Lama)
#adviceForNewDoctors

4/ Pick up the trash. I don’t care where that wrapper in the hospital hallway came from, pick it up and throw it away. #adviceForNewDoctors

5/ Learn people’s names. That includes the nurse who hands you the scalpel, the patient (and their spouse) in room 302, the students that will someday be caring for you #adviceForNewDoctors

6/ Open the door. I mean the real door and the proverbial door as a mentor. Cultivate genuine relationships with humility and compassion in and outside medicine. #adviceForNewDoctors

7 /Ask for help. We all need it. We all benefit from it and in turn it will help you help others. This is a key to resilience in our profession. Like a passenger in a plane, you need to place your oxygen mask on first #adviceForNewDoctors

8/ Make your voice heard at every level. Vote. Be civically engaged. It’s simple and simply critical to the foundation of our nation #adviceForNewDoctors

9/ Call your momma. Take care of the needs of your family as much as you care for your patients and let them care for you. They will be your bedrock on your most challenging days in medicine #adviceForNewDoctors

10/ Be courageous. Have the courage to make a difference in your own way, whatever that means to you. Make medicine your own #adviceForNewDoctors

11/Simply put, “doing no harm” is not enough. Do good-- & be better than good for yourself, your patients, and everyone else who has the benefit of your care. //fin #adviceForNewDoctors