Does everyone else feel incompetent?

[newwannabedr]

So I just finished my preclinical years of medical school (I'm not in USA) and I've actually done really well so far. Yesterday I started my first Emergency placement and the doctors were really kind to me but I just felt so incredibly incompetent the whole shift. It's like I set foot in the hospital and everything I've learned has just gone out the window. I think my main problem is answering questions on the spot and communicating what I know. At one point a Dr was questioning me about various resp diseases and I actually said that COPD isn't obstructive (kill me - it's in the name for goodness sake). I just get so nervous! I can only get a few disjointed words out - I think that doctor thinks I have a cognitive disability now haha.

Is this how the rest of medical school is going to feel? Does everyone else feel this way. I'm dreading going back tonight.

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[Stagg737]

So I just finished my preclinical years of medical school (I'm not in USA) and I've actually done really well so far. Yesterday I started my first Emergency placement and the doctors were really kind to me but I just felt so incredibly incompetent the whole shift. It's like I set foot in the hospital and everything I've learned has just gone out the window. I think my main problem is answering questions on the spot and communicating what I know. At one point a Dr was questioning me about various resp diseases and I actually said that COPD isn't obstructive (kill me - it's in the name for goodness sake). I just get so nervous! I can only get a few disjointed words out - I think that doctor thinks I have a cognitive disability now haha.

Is this how the rest of medical school is going to feel? Does everyone else feel this way. I'm dreading going back tonight.

It gets better, but your first clinical experiences will likely be you just trying to figure out how to even function in a hospital setting, followed by an understanding that you're mostly useless and how to learn while simultaneously staying out of the way. Pretty soon you'll figure out how you can be useful, and eventually you'll get to the point where you can actually start acting more like a physician, but that won't be for a long time. Keep in mind there's a reason it takes so many years to become a physician, and you're not dumb for sucking when you first start clinicals.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

You'll feel the same way come residency, trust me. Every doctor--unless they're some sort of freak genius--has gone through the same thing, and with experience became more competent and confident.

You're not alone.

 

[Psai]

no i am the best

 

[narla_hotep]

Oh yes all the time. And I'm not even in clinical years yet

 

[Trogghunter]

When I was an intern in the ICU presenting new admissions(attending was the department head of pulm/CCU and is a nationally known intensivist) I consistently made so many mistakes presenting that I thought I had a disability. What ended up helping was thinking back to basic physiology and learning how clinical presentations apply to what you learned in the classroom, and vice versa. Also, practice does make it better. Everyone goes through it.