Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Doctors will inevitably make mistakes because they are also human

Natalia Birgisson
Education
June 20, 2017
Share
Tweet
Share

Every time I walk into a bookstore, I pass Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and am reminded of a specific anecdote he shared.

Kalanithi, MD, was a seventh-year neurosurgery resident and his lung cancer had metastasized – a process which was only being controlled by a new drug his oncologist had decided to try. But one day, Kalanithi had severe nausea and had to be hospitalized to stay hydrated. A second-year internal medicine resident (five years Kalanithi’s junior in training) was in charge of his care, and he decided to take Kalanithi off his cancer drug because it might be causing damage to his liver. When Kalanithi argued with him that this was unlikely since he had been taking it for a year, and that without taking it a bone-searing pain would set in, the resident responded: “If you weren’t you, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. I’d just stop the drug and make you prove it causes all this pain.”

I still think about this hurtful interaction and marvel over both the insensitivity of the medicine resident and the grace of Kalanithi to forgive him. (In writing his memoir, Kalanithi chose not to name the resident because he didn’t want this physician’s career to be defined by one moment of irritability toward a patient.) It takes an incredibly self-empowered patient to have a doctor say something hurtful or insensitive and forgive them because as patients we are so vulnerable and so trusting of our doctors.

I thought of Kalanithi again when I read a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year. In her piece, called “A View from the Edge – Creating a Culture of Caring,” Rana Awdish, MD, tells the story of how she became fatally ill while seven months pregnant and practicing medicine. She had to be hospitalized and nearly died several times; her unborn baby did not survive.

Awdish writes about how devastated she was as a patient by insensitive questions and comments from doctors — questions and comments she herself might have made if she had been the treating doctor. She also shares stories of how the staff went out of their way to treat her with kindness — acts which in themselves helped her heal.

For example, a transporter saw her break down with grief over her lost child when a radiologist asked her about the small pink baby bracelet still in her chart. So this transporter took it upon himself to tell the technicians not to ask about the baby, and word spread to other staff members such that “in an 800-bed hospital, the transporters had united to form a protective enclosure around one patient.”

Tears filled my eyes as I read this story of how empowered staff members can give the kindness that sometimes tired doctors can’t give, and of how empowered patients can forgive doctors for their flaws. But mostly, these stories motivated me to be the kind of doctor who can — maybe, sometimes — be aware of when I lack empathy and ask for help. After all, medicine is teamwork and caring for our patients can come from many people when one of us is too run down. This isn’t at all an excuse for doctors to be unkind but rather an acknowledgment that we will inevitably make mistakes because we are also human. And rather than chastising ourselves, we should learn to identify when we lack emotional energy and seek creative solutions so that our patients don’t feel a cold gap.

Natalia Birgisson is a medical student who blogs at Scope, where this article originally appeared.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

Health bureaucrats talk out of both sides of their mouths

June 20, 2017 Kevin 5
…
Next

Millennials are the key to the future of a better world for medicine

June 20, 2017 Kevin 1
…

Tagged as: Hospital-Based Medicine

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Health bureaucrats talk out of both sides of their mouths
Next Post >
Millennials are the key to the future of a better world for medicine

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Natalia Birgisson

  • Scenes from a medical student’s rotation in psychiatry

    Natalia Birgisson
  • In medical school, not all gunners are created equal

    Natalia Birgisson
  • What this medical student learned after working with foster children

    Natalia Birgisson

Related Posts

  • Why doctors-in-training need better nutritional education

    Abeer Arain, MD, MPH
  • Why do doctors who hate being doctors still practice?

    Kristin Puhl, MD
  • The medical student who had a genuine human profile

    DrizzleMD
  • We’re doctors. We signed the book.

    Jonathan Peters, MD
  • Be a human first and a doctor second

    Sarah Murad
  • Doctors aren’t just white coats without a face

    Devon Romano

More in Education

  • Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

    Anonymous
  • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

    Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH
  • What led me from nurse practitioner to medical school

    Sarah White, APRN
  • Bridging the rural surgical care gap with rotating health care teams

    Ankit Jain
  • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

    Hiba Fatima Hamid
  • The hidden cost of becoming a doctor: a South Asian perspective

    Momeina Aslam
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

      Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH | Education
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How doctors took back control from hospital executives

      Gene Uzawa Dorio, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Conditions
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Finding healing in narrative medicine: When words replace silence

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Why coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When the white coats become gatekeepers: How a quiet cartel strangles America’s health

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Why doctors stay silent about preventable harm

      Jenny Shields, PhD | Conditions
    • Why interoperability is key to achieving the quintuple aim in health care

      Steven Lane, MD | Tech

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 1 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • 2 hours to decide my future: How the SOAP residency match traps future doctors

      Nicolette V. S. Sewall, MD, MPH | Education
    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • In a fractured world, Brian Wilson’s message still heals

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • How doctors took back control from hospital executives

      Gene Uzawa Dorio, MD | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails

      M. Bennet Broner, PhD | Conditions
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself

      Patrick Hudson, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • When your dream job becomes a nightmare [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Finding healing in narrative medicine: When words replace silence

      Michele Luckenbaugh | Conditions
    • Why coaching is not a substitute for psychotherapy

      Maire Daugharty, MD | Conditions
    • When the white coats become gatekeepers: How a quiet cartel strangles America’s health

      Anonymous | Physician
    • Why doctors stay silent about preventable harm

      Jenny Shields, PhD | Conditions
    • Why interoperability is key to achieving the quintuple aim in health care

      Steven Lane, MD | Tech

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Doctors will inevitably make mistakes because they are also human
1 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...