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I will never forget when my attending yelled at me and told me that I didn'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'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'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't realize until I met with 1-on-1 to talk about the incident. It'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've accepted that 90% of what I do is not right, but that 10% that is right didn't come without initial failings, and I'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'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.
