Five Habits Great Doctors Practice Every Day

If we can believe the movies and the TV shows the great doctors are always right.

• don’t make mistakes
• always have the right diagnosis at hand and
• always know what to do.

1. They listen.

   They listen to their residents, to their nurses and to their patients. They try to gather as many pieces of information as possible before they makes a decision.
   I know doctors, who interrupt their residents after two or three sentences, because they think they know where this is going. The better ones listen carefully to what a resident has to say.

2. They go to the patients.

   Yes, they actually do it. They don’t only listen to their residents carefully and look at the chart, the X-ray and the ECG. No, afterwards they actually walk up to the patients and shake their hands and take a look themselves. Amazing, isn’t it?

3. They are authentic.

   Of course no doctor knows everything. Shocking information, right? The great ones don’t pretend they do, either. Instead they will say:
   “I did not see that coming.”
   “I was surprised by this outcome.”
   “I  have no idea how I can help this patient.”
   “I made a mistake”

4. They have feelings.

   Great doctors have feelings towards their patients. That does not mean they cry every time a patient comes in with back pain. But you can see that their driving force is to help the patient. Thus, they are relieved when a difficult procedure went well and they are disappointed after unexpected complications.

5. They take responsibility.

   When something goes wrong they do not blame other doctors, nurses or residents, even if they could. Instead they take full responsibility for what happened in their environment. They apologize to the patient if something went wrong and analyze what happened.