Fear messing up?

[vpv]

Hi. This is one of my general posts in quite a long time. I am currently a senior in high school and since gr 9 I have had an interest in medicine. Today, I was watching scrubs and the episode was about Elliot getting sued by a cancer patient when she misinforms him that he has 9 months to live but they actually cure his cancer.

I actually was pretty frightened afterward and was thinking that if I were to perhaps make a stupid mistake such as that, it would totally destroy all I would have worked tirelessly for. Does anyone feel the same way that I do? Do you think that you might mess up? Please provide some feedback.

Thank you.

BTW, what the hell is a troll? People keep on mentioning this and I really don't know what they are talking about...

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[Emerica]

I believe that is what malpractice insurance is for. And remember you are getting your information from a television program.

 

[vpv]

I believe that is what malpractice insurance is for. And remember you are getting your information from a television program.

Isn't malpractice insurance suppose to cover your losses in the court? What if you get stripped of your licence? does this happen? And that scenario was just an example. Does that happen in real life?

 

[Emerica]

I'm sure it happens when complete negligence is the cause but if it was truly an accident, I don't think you could lose everything. That sounds too unrealistic to me.

 

[KempDrumsalot]

Hi. This is one of my general posts in quite a long time. I am currently a senior in high school and since gr 9 I have had an interest in medicine. Today, I was watching scrubs and the episode was about Elliot getting sued by a cancer patient when she misinforms him that he has 9 months to live but they actually cure his cancer.

I actually was pretty frightened afterward and was thinking that if I were to perhaps make a stupid mistake such as that, it would totally destroy all I would have worked tirelessly for. Does anyone feel the same way that I do? Do you think that you might mess up? Please provide some feedback.

Thank you.

BTW, what the hell is a troll? People keep on mentioning this and I really don't know what they are talking about...

Troll --> http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=541907

Everyone will mess up eventually. Hopefully it will just be a minor mistake that can be fixed quickly and even better, not a mistake that will affect a patient.

 

[Local]

Im not positive, but i doubt you would loose your license from a misdiagnosis.

 

[Crazyday]

Messing up/losing patients as a doctor is inevitable. Being sued as a doctor is also pretty much inevitable. There's worse lawsuits out there than what Elliot did in that episode (although acting the way she did...).

I don't think you lose your license because of just one mistake. In "Complications" by Atul Gawande, he has a chapter on when doctors go bad. It takes quite a bit of obvious negligence and lawsuits to get reported and have your license stripped.

And you probably will mess up as a doctor. You will probably also kill at least one person as a doctor, and you will know in your heart you were fully responsible. Humans make mistakes, and doctors are no different. That's the way medicine is, you win some you lose some, and you just have to buck up and deal with it and learn from the experience.

 

[niranjan162]

nobody cares if it was an honest mistake or negligence. Every one wants their $ and drs are an easy target. Litigation is one of the causes of y there is so much wasted money in the healthcare system. You may not lose your license but u'll pay for it one way or another. The best thing to hope for is serious tort reform. read up on the issue because it will def affect you.

 

[vpv]

I guess that's true but really, killing someone, accidentally or on purpose, still disturbs the conscience, which makes me wonder why I want to pursue medicine... Like the time when Foreman killed the young girl through misdiagnosis (forgot episode name).

 

[Depakote]

"Don't worry, I can't even begin to tell you how you're going to screw up."

-One of my favorite ID Attendings

Perhaps one of the more seasoned docs can tell you how they cope with it.

Although not every patient will sue you if you are upfront with them and honestly explain what happened.

 

[Doodledog]

I guess that's true but really, killing someone, accidentally or on purpose, still disturbs the conscience, which makes me wonder why I want to pursue medicine... .

Throughout your medical career, you will make patient care decisions or do procedures on patients. Most of these will go well and many will make the patient do better which is a rewarding feeling. However, inevitably, some patients will get worse during or after your care. This is what medicine is about.

One aspect of the entire medical education process is learning how to deal with this situation appropriately. What is best is to reflect on what happened, and try to decide if there is something you think you could have done better and/or will try to do better next time. Sometimes your decisions will be evaluated by others and sometimes this process is entirely internal.

Regardless, how you deal with this situation is a major aspect of your satisfaction with medicine. If you are overly self-critical, or can't deal with criticism in a clinical setting by other doctors, etc, then you'll likely not do well in types of medicine involve taking care of very sick patients. Others thrive on the challenge of self-reflection and/or difficult circumstances.

I can tell you that many if not most doctors DO carry some of their perceived mistakes home with them and feel bad about them. This is natural and probably reasonably "normal" as long as you get over it (don't obsess) and learn from the error. Ultimately however, most of us recognize that we are human, that mostly we are making good decisions and providing good care, and that we enjoy the challenge of medical care.

The bottom line is that your concerns are reasonable, but the medical care training process will give you experiences and skills to deal with these concerns and, if you are like most physicians, you will learn to accept your mistakes and learn from them.

 

[Depakote]

Throughout your medical career, you will make patient care decisions or do procedures on patients. Most of these will go well and many will make the patient do better which is a rewarding feeling. However, inevitably, some patients will get worse during or after your care. This is what medicine is about.

One aspect of the entire medical education process is learning how to deal with this situation appropriately. What is best is to reflect on what happened, and try to decide if there is something you think you could have done better and/or will try to do better next time. Sometimes your decisions will be evaluated by others and sometimes this process is entirely internal.

Regardless, how you deal with this situation is a major aspect of your satisfaction with medicine. If you are overly self-critical, or can't deal with criticism in a clinical setting by other doctors, etc, then you'll likely not do well in types of medicine involve taking care of very sick patients. Others thrive on the challenge of self-reflection and/or difficult circumstances.

I can tell you that many if not most doctors DO carry some of their perceived mistakes home with them and feel bad about them. This is natural and probably reasonably "normal" as long as you get over it (don't obsess) and learn from the error. Ultimately however, most of us recognize that we are human, that mostly we are making good decisions and providing good care, and that we enjoy the challenge of medical care.

The bottom line is that your concerns are reasonable, but the medical care training process will give you experiences and skills to deal with these concerns and, if you are like most physicians, you will learn to accept your mistakes and learn from them.

Thanks, Tildy.

I was hoping you'd find this discussion.