Tips for IM Attendings – Chapter 2 – Humility

“Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon “Don’t think too highly of yourself. But also don’t think too lowly of yourself. That’s false humility.” – Tony Bennett (UVa Basketball Coach) The best clinicians and the best educators exhibit humility.  As a student and resident one attending physician repeatedly told us the importance of humility.  Dr. Orhan Muren, a 5 foot tall Turkish pulmonologist, repeatedly told us that “in medicine never get cocky”.  He was telling us to avoid hubris.  He told us to consistently ask ourselves if we had the correct diagnosis, testing plan or treatment.  He stimulated us to second guess ourselves and to engage others if we needed our own second opinion. As a 2nd year resident, I once had an intern who made some decisions that exceeded his level of competence and experience.  I remember telling him that he had to understand the limits of his expertise. I often tell students and residents that lack of knowledge is acceptable, but not understanding your lack of knowledge is dangerous.  These words fit the two quotes above.  We demonstrate humility when we understand both what we know and what we do not know.  When we request help for those issues that we do not understand,  we often help our patients.  When we believe that we know more than we do, we may harm our patients. As educators we should embrace humility.  We should remain humble about our teaching skills a...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs