Paige Bueckers, a 23-year-old WNBA star, was drafted number one this year to the Dallas Wings and has been having a historic rookie season. Against the Los Angeles Sparks on August 20, she scored forty-four points while shooting eighty percent, tying an all-time WNBA rookie record. As a physician, I find that Bueckers’s mindset has a lot to teach me about being a physician. Here are the top five Paige Bueckers attributes that physicians can apply to their practice of medicine.
High scoring efficiency
Bueckers has been shooting forty-seven percent from the field this season, making her the WNBA’s fifth leading scorer at 19.7 points per game. What is the lesson for doctors? Make every shot count. We have one shot to get it right at the bedside, and we are under incredible pressure (as is Bueckers) to ensure our words land. We must be efficient in choosing our words to elicit trust within patients and families. This takes practice. Early in my career, in a moment I am not proud of, I took a pack of cigarettes from a father of a patient who had asthma, and I threw it in the trash can. I now know a better approach is motivational interviewing, gauging readiness to quit and motivation to change to guide my words. On the flip side, I have convinced hesitant parents to choose the flu vaccine by pairing hard numbers with stories of children who stayed healthier because of it, choosing my stories and statistics carefully. To score big with patients, practice using the right words, and say what works.
Crediting your team
When asked about her record-breaking scoring night, Bueckers without hesitation credited her teammates for setting her up to score. Basketball is a team sport, but medicine is too. Physicians rely on mentors to establish high clinical standards, to cheer us along in scholarly pursuits, and to sponsor us to improve visibility. We rely on nurses, social workers, scheduling staff, and medical assistants. Medicine has its own “pick and roll,” where the player setting the screen (i.e., Wings teammate Luisa, to whom Bueckers gave credit) does the job without the glory. In our careers, it is our duty to give credit to our supporting teammates along the way who help us care for patients. Bueckers is a master at deflecting praise to showcase the talents of her lesser-known peers. Humble doctors who credit their peers make medicine an inclusive profession.
Three-level scoring
While some WNBA players are known for their three-point shooting or points in the paint, Bueckers can drive to the hoop, shoot the three, or score the “midi” shot. This translates well to academics, where physicians are promoted based on the triple “threat” of seeing patients, educating trainees, and producing scholarly work. All are important to the academic mission, and the GOATs of medicine do all three well. We may emphasize one or the other more than the others (just as Paige is a master of the “midi”), but to be successful is to also incorporate all three levels. One level supports the other: great clinicians make great educators, and both inspire scholarly pursuits in education and research. All physicians, academic or not, can use their powerful voices to advocate for beneficial local health policy, or to volunteer in disadvantaged neighborhoods to increase awareness of medicine as a profession. Just as Bueckers’s success stems from supplementing her midi shot, physicians should supplement clinical skill with endeavors in education, scholarship, and community engagement.
Staying positive in the face of losses
Bueckers’s Wings team has only nine wins this season and one of the worst records in the entire league. Yet, Bueckers does not let the losses get her down. After the loss to the Sparks, she stated that she is grateful to her teammates: “This team just means so much to me… how we show up for each other… the wins have not translated yet, what we are building here, it just makes me so happy. I am just super grateful for it.” Similarly, medicine is about building a career despite setbacks. We complete one level of education (medical school, residency) only to be downgraded to the lowest rung. The ultimate challenge comes when we find ourselves as a first-year attending physician, making literal life-or-death decisions on our own. On my first week as an attending on the wards, a parent complained I opened the door too loudly. An older male physician barked at me, “What do you want from me now?” in response to my consult recommendation, while another male physician berated me in front of his team. These interactions made me feel like a failure. After asked about the Wings’s losing record, Bueckers said, “[On] the other side of a hard time is a blessing … How is your character when you have a losing record?” Fast forward twelve years, and I am a mid-career physician with long-standing patients who regularly express their gratitude towards me, but it took time to build my confidence and resilience. Bueckers’s statements beg the question: In the face of difficult situations as physicians, how do we hold ourselves? And, how do we treat patients and colleagues going through a rough time? This is the real measure of a player, and of a physician. As physicians, we are bound to have difficult days, yet Bueckers’s example encourages us to keep caring for patients with compassion. The rewards will come.
Showing gratitude
After a hard-fought loss to Las Vegas, Bueckers said: “This whole season has been such a blessing… It is a huge honor to represent the Wings. The fans, the city; they have embraced me and my teammates since day one. I am just grateful.” This is not an easy application to medicine, especially when physicians are faced with increasing expectations on productivity, decreased compensation, mistrust from patients and families, challenges by insurance companies, gender and racial bias, and unprecedented federal policy changes. Physicians are feeling it from all sides in a way that cannot be compared to any other profession. Yet, I find solace in Bueckers’s words. After long days, I do feel grateful for the knowledge and opportunity to care for patients with colleagues I respect and have the same mission. Does gratitude fix all institutional and systemic problems in medicine? Absolutely not. Yet, feeling gratitude leaves me with hope. Each physician has the power to use our voice to make our profession stronger, to advocate for both patients and physician well-being. Just as Paige exudes positivity in the face of failure, physicians can focus on the power of patient care and collegiality to carry us through tough times.
Paige Bueckers dropped forty-four points in an incredible performance that was historic, and yet, her team still lost. But Bueckers’s maturity after losing defines her greatness, even at such a young age. She does not see losses as failures; she sees growth, team building, and misses no opportunity to credit others. For physicians facing constant frustration, Paige’s mindset (grounding ourselves in teamwork and feeling gratitude for the opportunity to influence our profession) may be the most important lesson of all.
Devika Rao is a pediatric pulmonologist.
