If I could go back in time and advise myself as I began residency, I’d tell myself that “Discomfort is the currency of your dreams.”
Life Coach Brooke Castillo imparted this wisdom in a podcast interview with a fellow entrepreneur, Amy Porterfield. This idea is aptly applied to medical training, which is notoriously tough. There is a lot to learn in a short period of time, from medical knowledge to navigating difficult conversations. The experience gained in training forms the groundwork for a medical career; it’s not supposed to be easy.
Unfortunately, our tendency to resist or dwell on discomfort can make it worse, increasing the associated negative feelings, and wasting precious time. Instead, consider: if you’re uncomfortable in medical training, that means you’re doing it right. If I could advise my younger self, I’d tell her to lean into the discomfort as she learned each of the following:
Patient care
As you learn to care for patients, there are plenty of mistakes to be made. Sometimes you’ll beat yourself up over an error; other times you’ll be reprimanded by a superior. You’ll be corrected by everyone from the Department Chair to the janitorial staff. As uncomfortable as this can be, accepting feedback is part of your job as a trainee. The senior residents and attendings you admire have spent years honing their skills. To achieve their results, they have endured discomfort, and grown through the process, to achieve the dream of helping their patients. Accepting discomfort as part of the learning process will help you to avoid augmenting your own pain.
When you struggle to get an order set to the pre-operative nurse through the new electronic medical record (EMR) despite many attempts, for example, you may want to bang your head against the desk. You could worry about why you have trouble with these order sets, while your peers seem to get it just fine. Rather than avoiding the EMR or asking someone else to do the task for you, get extra help with Information Technology (IT) if needed. Learn to work through the disconnect in workflow, communicating with the nurse, even when you feel like giving up. Navigating these kinds of challenges in a high-stakes, time-constrained, or frustrating environment can mold you into a better doctor if you let it.
Self-directed learning
After you have half-jogged, half dragged yourself around the hospital all day, when you arrive home, crashing on the sofa may seem like the next logical step. But no matter how much you’ve learned during the day, it’s not enough to become a solid physician. You need to leverage time outside the hospital too. This will often involve leaving home, securing some caffeine, and reading until you’re bleary-eyed.
Tomorrow, on rounds, the surgeons may “pimp” you on the five most common causes of pancreatitis, and it’ll be scary. If you can’t rattle them off on the spot, it can feel like public humiliation. The Socratic method is uncomfortable, but it’s preparation for the moment you are asked the same question by an anxious mother. The toiling and testing you endure will allow you to answer her with confidence, and explain the next steps in her son’s work-up. Her relief and comfort is your reward. In this way, pushing yourself to learn all you can is the currency of your dreams.
Becoming part of the team
Effectively working within a healthcare team involves a steep learning curve. Immersed in a new culture, you learn how each member contributes, from nursing to ancillary staff. There is a communication style unique to the environment, which you must hone as a physician and leader. There is a diplomacy to working with those around you, as you learn and make mistakes in training (and beyond). During this process, your ego will be tossed about, like a little sailboat on a stormy sea. This is normal. Learning team dynamics and their countless nuances is a challenge.
Humility is everything. For example, while interviewing a patient, you realize you missed a key part of their history, changing the conversation between you. Rather than acting like you knew something you didn’t, or blaming a colleague, you can quickly acknowledge the feeling of unpreparedness, and move on, working to rectify any gaps in knowledge.
When you inevitably order the wrong medication or dose, fix it right away, and realize that to err is human. Being wrong is the price of entry in medicine, and your team can help alert you when this occurs. In fact, when all staff feel empowered to speak up regarding potential medical errors, it makes the care environment safer.
Patient communication
Communicating with patients is a worthy challenge, especially in times of duress. When health fails, or devastation occurs, we help guide the patient and their loved ones through it. Navigating these situations requires developing a skill-set. Sometimes displaced feelings of grief, confusion, and anger fly our way. When this occurs, stepping into the discomfort can help you become a compassionate and masterful communicator. As a budding physician, this work is the currency of your dreams.
Self-care
Accepting discomfort as a part of the training process is an act of self-care in itself. Doing so will help you move through training with resiliency and agency. When you view discomfort as a tool for growth, rather than something inflicted upon you, there is no need to dwell on how things should be different. Like the soreness that comes from working a muscle, you can feel the burn of fatigue, and accept the discomfort that lasts days later, knowing you’re getting stronger. There are countless ways to care for yourself in training, and I recommend practicing some, like those described in this tongue-in-cheek beauty guide for interventional radiologists.
I sometimes catch myself avoiding uncomfortable moments, or procrastinating on tasks I need to accomplish. The work of a doctor can be complex, mundane, grueling, or joyful, depending on the day. Sometimes it can be all these things at once. Embracing discomfort in training will allow you to become the best physician you can be. You’re the driving force when you realize that discomfort truly is the currency of your dreams.
Tired Super Heroine is an interventional radiologist and toddler mom in Southern California, writing about career, lifestyle, and financial empowerment for physicians. The blog can be found at tiredsuperheroine.com
