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

What makes health care workers superhuman

Eric Tian
Education
March 9, 2020
15 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share

“So, the next step in the history taking process is to define the pain. You start this by asking for site, with questions like, “Where are you experiencing the pain? Can you pinpoint the site or is it more general? Does the pain radiate (spread anywhere)?” And if the pain is on one side of the body, remember to ask about the other side – this is important. Got it? OK, the next step is severity …”

As the tutor speaks, the flurry of medical students typing notes is oddly reminiscent of a waterfall, with myself and 11 other first-year medical students taking part in its creation. The class I’m in is called Clinical Skills Tutorial (CST), which teaches the more practical skills of medicine such as taking histories or doing patient examinations – this week, we are being introduced to the history-taking process. But while it is exciting to learn what a doctor does, I can’t help but feel a different, uninspiring feeling rise up within me as I type. A twinge of … disappointment. The disappointment initially surprises me, but after a while, it fades away. I soon realize why.

When I was little, I thought doctors were a special breed of people – those blessed with levels of intellect, observation, and analytical thinking far beyond that of the general population. A “superhuman,” if you’d like. I always marveled how a GP, upon never seeing a patient before, could diagnose the cause of chest pain using a few questions, tests, and some poking around and then prescribe the perfect drug, where the patient would then live happily ever after (hooray!). I also imagined doctors had flashes of superhuman genius, which told them what questions to ask, what diagnoses to make, and what decisions to make in critical situations – a process mere humans could never understand.

But of course, doctors are human and have limitations like the rest of us. Doctors often get things wrong, with diagnostic error rates estimated to be close to an alarming 15 percent. And from my first few weeks of medical school, it seems unlikely that wild ‘flashes of inspiration’ occur at all. Rather, medicine seems more mundane, more formulaic – a process of extracting the same pieces of information from each patient and recognizing particular groups of symptoms. Almost like pattern recognition, like a game. Nothing too superhuman at all.

It’s somewhat disappointing to reach the conclusion that doctors probably aren’t too different from the rest of the population. I imagine the notion of the “superhuman doctor” is something we hold for our own sake – we want doctors to be infallible, incapable of getting our diagnoses wrong, when in fact, doctors can get sick, miss their families, and become exhausted just like the rest of us. Despite all this, the ordinary doctor tries their best to repair a patient, knowing full well that they share the same limitations of energy, time, and need for social connection.

But perhaps it is exactly this that makes doctors and other allied health workers superhuman: the constant exertion of effort to reach an unattainable level of perfection for the sake of the poor, the injured, and the broken. It’s taking potential burnout, imposter syndrome, and unmet social commitments and moving them aside from focus temporarily, to make space for the patient’s needs. Caring: perhaps this is what makes health care workers superhuman – not some transcendence of IQ or memory, but something more subtle, more internal: the prioritization of others’ needs above your own. Now that is pretty extraordinary.

Eric Tian is a medical student who blogs at Neoteric Reflections.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

Is medicine a minefield of gender discrimination and abuse?

March 9, 2020 Kevin 9
…
Next

Continuing medical education: Why it's important and how to make it effective

March 9, 2020 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Medical school, Primary Care

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Is medicine a minefield of gender discrimination and abuse?
Next Post >
Continuing medical education: Why it's important and how to make it effective

More by Eric Tian

  • What challenges do you see yourself facing as a doctor?

    Eric Tian

Related Posts

  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Health care workers should not be targets

    Lori E. Johnson
  • Major medical groups back mandatory COVID vaccine for health care workers

    Molly Walker
  • An apology to frontline health care workers

    Michele Luckenbaugh
  • The epidemic of violence against health care workers

    Marlene Harris-Taylor
  • Health care workers need policy changes, not just applause

    Yuemei (Amy) Zhang, MD

More in Education

  • The secret to success in medical school: self-awareness and courage

    Kaelor Gordon
  • Is mandating pre-medical training widening disparities in the U.S. physician workforce?

    Deepak Gupta, MD and Sarwan Kumar, MD
  • Equalizing the future of medical residencies: standardizing work hours and wages

    Deepak Gupta, MD and Sarwan Kumar, MD
  • From studying to baby kicks: Navigating motherhood in medical school

    Natalie Eichner-Seitz
  • The power of advocacy: a medical student’s journey to helping an uninsured immigrant

    Fabiola Plaza
  • From AI to love: the key to a better future in medical education

    Stevan Walkowski, DO
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Unintended consequences of Health Care Quality Improvement Act: a violation of physicians’ civil and constitutional rights

      Farid Gharagozloo, MD & Rainer Gruessner, MD & Robert Poston, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury

      Stephanie Pearson, MD | Physician
    • An unspoken truth about non-compete clauses in medicine

      Harry Severance, MD | Policy
    • Fostering the next (diverse) generation of clinicians

      Imamu Tomlinson, MD, MBA | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

      Kellie Lease Stecher, MD | Physician
    • The Titanic sinking: a metaphor for the impending collapse of medicine

      Aaron Morgenstein, MD & Corinne Sundar Rao, MD & Shreekant Vasudhev, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • From penicillin to digital health: the impact of social media on medicine

      Homer Moutran, MD, MBA, Caline El-Khoury, PhD, and Danielle Wilson | Social media
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • How to overcome telemedicine’s biggest obstacles

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

      Mohammed Umer Waris, MD | Policy
    • Redefining success: a journey of self-discovery and fulfillment [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Yoga and self-care won’t cure my Crohn’s disease

      Kristen L. Cole | Conditions

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

Leave a Comment

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

CME Spotlights

From MedPage Today

Latest News

  • Why Are Emergency Medicine Residents Disappearing?
  • Primary Care Was the Loser in Our Residents' Popularity Contest ...
  • Cases of Bald Spots After Regular Use of Detangling Hairbrushes
  • Post-Op Delirium Linked to Accelerated Cognitive Decline
  • Response Rates in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Continue to Climb With New Therapies

Meeting Coverage

  • Response Rates in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Continue to Climb With New Therapies
  • Another Win for a JAK Inhibitor in Alopecia Areata
  • Biologic Switch Revs Up Response in Plaque Psoriasis
  • Adding Pembrolizumab to Docetaxel Fails to Improve Survival in mCRPC
  • Moving Newer Agents Up Earlier in Advanced Bladder Cancer
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Unintended consequences of Health Care Quality Improvement Act: a violation of physicians’ civil and constitutional rights

      Farid Gharagozloo, MD & Rainer Gruessner, MD & Robert Poston, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury

      Stephanie Pearson, MD | Physician
    • An unspoken truth about non-compete clauses in medicine

      Harry Severance, MD | Policy
    • Fostering the next (diverse) generation of clinicians

      Imamu Tomlinson, MD, MBA | Physician
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

      Kellie Lease Stecher, MD | Physician
    • The Titanic sinking: a metaphor for the impending collapse of medicine

      Aaron Morgenstein, MD & Corinne Sundar Rao, MD & Shreekant Vasudhev, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • From penicillin to digital health: the impact of social media on medicine

      Homer Moutran, MD, MBA, Caline El-Khoury, PhD, and Danielle Wilson | Social media
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • How to overcome telemedicine’s biggest obstacles

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

      Mohammed Umer Waris, MD | Policy
    • Redefining success: a journey of self-discovery and fulfillment [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Yoga and self-care won’t cure my Crohn’s disease

      Kristen L. Cole | Conditions

MedPage Today Professional

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

Leave a Comment

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

Loading Comments...