Forgetful Physcian?

[MeMyselfandI]

Hello everyone,
I'm in my last year of studies and I'm starting to really have doubts whether I would be a competant physician. I'm finding that I am increasingly anxious and forgetful, to the point where I make several absent-minded errors in single week (laboratory work). These errors seem to happen most when I fear them happening, but sometimes they come as a complete surprise.
Now I worry, if I'm this forgetful and error prone as a simple lab rat, then naturally it follows that I may be just as forgetful and error prone as a physician.
So I ask you all, based on your personal experiences in a hospital setting, should I reconsider medicine based on this? Will I pose a risk to the well-being of patients? Is there any correlation between anxiety and forgetfulness?

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[PostLessOne]

No idea (when I was an EMT I would often forget my clipboard, yet I'm either number 1 or very close to it in my class academically), but you forgot how to spell 'physician' correctly.

 

[weightyheart]

Hello everyone,
I'm in my last year of studies and I'm starting to really have doubts whether I would be a competant physician. I'm finding that I am increasingly anxious and forgetful, to the point where I make several absent-minded errors in single week (laboratory work). These errors seem to happen most when I fear them happening, but sometimes they come as a complete surprise.
Now I worry, if I'm this forgetful and error prone as a simple lab rat, then naturally it follows that I may be just as forgetful and error prone as a physician.
So I ask you all, based on your personal experiences in a hospital setting, should I reconsider medicine based on this? Will I pose a risk to the well-being of patients? Is there any correlation between anxiety and forgetfulness?

Your lab experiences say that you have poor organization skills and you have not invested enough thought into what you are doing. It does not mean that you have some sort of memory problem. Your lab performance can be improved by double checking yourself, writing down everything, reserving a chunk of time off the bench for thinking about your day's work. Whether this will affect your ability to perform as a physician depends on if you can step it up a notch and not make any mistakes when it really matters.
Also, unless you go into surgery or EM, I don't think you need to have "flawless technique". There are specialties that sit behind a desk or bench, ruminate all day long, or dispense prescriptions.

 

[tkyle56]

I understand your worries. Whenever I changed to pre-med I was no where close to having the skills to be a successful med student, but I worked very hard and starting med school this fall I know I will be successful. You aren't going to be a doctor when you graduate undergrad, you will be in 4 years when you graduate med school so you still have time to develop the skills you believe you need to be a physician.

Study hard, increase your GPA as much as possible, do as well as you can on the MCAT, and do volunteering and shadowing. After all of that is done let the medical school decide based on your credentials and your interview if you are fit to be a medical student. The rate of students not graduating medical school is like 4%, trust me the medical schools know what it takes.

Nobody is perfect and you should always try to better yourself and minimize the mistakes you make regardless of your student status or physician status.

 

[makshim]

Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.

 

[red10]

get organized and write everything down in a planner or something.
my craziest weeks in undergrad were the ones where i stopped writing things in my planner. you'll feel less scatterbrained if you have a list of things to get done instead of trying to remember all 100 things.

 

[derspiegel]

I can be very forgetful as well sometimes. I suppose writing stuff down and staying focused will have to save my ass during rotations🙂

 

[rmbsstock]

If you are posting this question because you are sincerely caring about your future patients, then you are on the right track of becoming a physician. You have the good heart, the good mind, but like others has mentioned, you need to work on your organizational skills.
Also, get on the web there are tons of great web sites which give you ideas and techniques on how to improve memory and focus.
Also, check any medications you are taking. Some of the medications we take can cause us to be forgetful. For example Topamax which is used most of the time for migraine headaches, I call it "stupomax" because it makes me feel stupid, since I have very sharp memory, and this medicine affects it a lot.
Good luck. Tackle the problem but not your dream

 

[tkyle56]

I agree with the medications. When I was studying for the MCAT, I was making between 30 and 35 on 7 different tests. The night before my dad recommended that I take an Ambien to make sure I would sleep well. I took it 10 hours prior to my test and I still felt a little numb and out of it during the MCAT. I made a freakin 28, I think my dad did it on purpose to keep me from making a better score than he did.

 

[Mr hawkings]

I agree with the medications. When I was studying for the MCAT, I was making between 30 and 35 on 7 different tests. The night before my dad recommended that I take an Ambien to make sure I would sleep well. I took it 10 hours prior to my test and I still felt a little numb and out of it during the MCAT. I made a freakin 28, I think my dad did it on purpose to keep me from making a better score than he did.

Now thats a gunner for life. Me likes