Stop Undercutting Yourself
"I can't believe I just said that. Sometimes I am so stupid, I could just kill myself." Those were actual words uttered by a medical student I supervised last year. For years, I had already been thinking about how it might be helpful to share the lessons I've learned about communication in medicine, but that moment truly cemented my plan. Although the student gave a rueful laugh while making these statements, I saw nothing funny about them. They were shocking, really, but we both passed it off as if it were any offhand remark that had nothing to do with the matter of practicing medicine that I was there to teach. On further reflection, I greatly regret letting these comments pass without further examination, and moreover, I believe that how we speak has a profound impact upon the way we practice medicine. Communication is a subject which is more than just briefly touched upon in medical school. A recent review on the subject states: In the 21st century, teaching...