Overlooking Things = bad doctor?

[DendWrite]

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I tend to overlook really stupid things when working in the lab...all the time. Even though I've been here for a while, I still make mistakes. What concerns me though is that I really, really try hard not to make mistakes. These mishaps aren't a result of me zoning out or not focusing on the work I'm doing -- rather, I'm confident that I'm doing it properly and in the end it turns out it was actually disastrously wrong. By making mistakes, I don't mean having the "wrong" hypothesis, but rather screwing something up procedurally that renders the data uninterpretable.

I'm afraid that as a scientist/clinician I will be a liability. My grades are fine...I'm pretty confident I could get into medical school, but I don't know if I should or if I should just do a straight PhD. The thought that as a doctor one of these lab slip-ups could literally kill someone is very sobering. It would be a simple solution, like I said, if it were just a matter of me zoning out or not concentrating, but I'm really putting all my energy into it and things still end up going wrong sometimes. I just don't know what to do.

I promise this is not a trollish post. This is something that's really been concerning me over the past few months and making me reconsider the profession. I tend to be really self-critical so maybe that's overshadowing my thought process, but the fact is -- the best scientists / best doctors don't make stupid mistakes. And when people's lives are on the line or precious funding money is being used to try to discover cures for diseases, if you aren't the best, then you shouldn't be there, right?

 

[apumic]

I don't think this is a question anyone else -- esp. those of who've never actually met you -- could possibly answer for you. How do you do in job performance? Do you miss things at work all the time? Not thinking through things or overlooking details could certainly cause a future doc some major problems. Oversights can happen in any profession and to anyone, but if you overlook things "all the time," that sounds a bit disconcerting to me.

 

[sonofva]

i work at an urgent care/ER. The doctor i work under SLAMS me for minor mistakes (misspellings, etc.)...at first i would get really frustrated. then i thought about it and came to terms...

as a physician you have an incredible amount of responsibility. EVERY detail counts. i've learned to self-correct. i double check everything (triple check the important stuff like medications).

for now we are pretty early on in the process. im sure that as time goes on we will learn to accommodate the large amount of detail oriented tasks required of us.

 

[Planet Ocean]

I can assure you that the best have made mistakes. What makes them different is that they learn from them. You screw up when youre a physician people will die. Now is the time to burn the 'measure twice cut once' attitude into your mind. Don't repeat the same mistakes twice otherwise you will never make it.