By Dr Simon Judkins
I remember doing my first ED rotation and thinking: this is my tribe. I really enjoy the team effort in an emergency care environment. I developed a real connection with that dynamic, so decided to pursue emergency medicine as a career. I’m excited for you to find your tribe too – though of course your tribe (and journey to find it) might look very different from mine. Here are my top five tips for being a great doctor.
1. Be somebody your patients can trust.
Medicine is about humans interacting. You can be the best technician or the smartest person in the room, but if you can’t engage your patients and create trust then the clinical outcomes you desire may not get delivered. The same applies for the teams you work with. Trust, honesty and integrity are critical for truly effective healthcare.
2. Learn how to be a leader.
Diverse, distributed leadership is incredibly important. I rely on every one of my clinicians to step up and be a leader. I instill in them that, every time they step on the floor, they're taking on a leadership role. Because the wider team will be looking for them to step up and take control and lead when things get busy, or there's an unwell patient. When I was a junior doctor, professors in white coats led with an authoritarian style. That style of leadership still exists in some places, but it’s dying out. As an intern you’re deep and watch and learn mode but pay attention to leadership styles too. Your time to lead will come – very likely sooner than you think.
3. Learn from your mistakes.
It’s not easy making mistakes in a high-pressure medical setting, but it happens to all of us. I've had plenty of failures; I’ve either let people down or let the team down or haven't met their expectations. And I’ve certainly been held accountable. Every one of those incidents or events was an opportunity to reflect and learn and do things better the next time. Good leadership or really, just being a good person is about learning from your mistakes.
4. Be an advocate for change.
I’ve learned being a good doctor is about working with, or sometimes against, the system to try and improve patient care. As doctors our goal is essentially to make things better for our patients, and sometimes we have to push for that. If something doesn’t feel right or you want to double and triple check things or seek a second opinion, listen to your gut. It’s telling you something.
5. Be part of the conversation.
AMA Victoria’s membership has grown in the past two years – and we want to continue that growth by getting more doctors on board and involved in what we do. You’re reading this, so you’re obviously a member of AMA Victoria. Thank you for joining us! I’m glad you’re here. As your career progresses, please continue to be involved. A bigger, stronger state and federal AMA is going to be better for clinicians, and it's also going to be better for our communities. It gives us a great platform for working with health ministers and health bureaucracy about improving our healthcare system.
Remember, AMA Victoria is here for you. You can call us on 03 9280 8722 or email [email protected].
Dr Simon Judkins is the Director of Emergency Medicine at Echuca Regional Health, President of AMA Victoria and Past President of the Australian College of Emergency Medicine.