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I will never forget when my attending yelled at me and told me that I didn& #39;t know how to take a history at all in front of my classmates, the residents, the nurses, and the patient. Literally my worst M3 nightmare (other than the improbably killing a pt as a student)
Parsing through a patient& #39;s extensive history for an 45 minutes. Interviewing the patient (who had late stage dementia) for way longer than necessary given that she was a poor historian, and writing up what I felt was a solid presentation.
But I got the CC "wrong", and it had been a really long rounding session, and my attending was at his limit of patience. He didn& #39;t even let me present. Just stopped me at the CC and proceeded destroyed my confidence (I was scared to present for 2 days)
In the midst of all of it, he was dropping very helpful advice that I didn& #39;t realize until I met with 1-on-1 to talk about the incident. It& #39;s advice that I still use to this day and has helped me improved my history taking and presentation skills.
Looking back on it, it was the turning point of my clinical rotations. I feel like I was trying to be a perfectionist before I knew how to do anything on a basic level. Now I take pride in making mistakes because it means I was thinking while obtaining a hx or examining a pt
I seek out constructive criticism whenever possible. I& #39;ve accepted that 90% of what I do is not right, but that 10% that is right didn& #39;t come without initial failings, and I& #39;m proud of that growth.
As med students on rotations, I truly believe that the hardest mental block to overcome is accepting that we are going to mess up A TON. And messing up a lot is not something we& #39;re used to. But our decisions will never kill a patient, so this is the best time to make mistakes.
Side note: This mental block is amplified by the pressure to be perfect so that we can honor all rotations. But showing improvement from day 1 to day 30 of a rotation is probably more important in honoring than gunning for perfection from day 1.
