Am I good enough?
We’ve all been there with the self-doubt. You’re about to graduate as an FY1 and you’re really struggling. You feel you’re never good enough despite some significant professional achievements and your friends and family insisting what you do is amazing. But none of it registers because you’re too busy feeling overwhelmed.
Everywhere you look other doctors seem to be doing better than you. They’re getting competitive places, producing multiple publications or winning prizes. You name it, they’re doing it. With the competitive nature of medicine increasing each year it’s so easy to feel like you are not keeping up and nothing you do is good enough.
This, coupled with the lack of sleep and working nights, makes it easy to lose perspective of your own achievements and feel insecure. The reality is you are not alone – as many as 50% foundation year doctors say they suffer from feeling unsure about their capabilities as a doctor
Remember, to be a doctor of any level is an incredible achievement. Ask yourself the following:
Are the only person’s expectations you are failing to meet your own?
The problem usually comes down to constantly comparing yourself to others - there will always be people who have done more, got better grades, better placements. But comparing yourself to them is always going to lead to self-deprecation and eventual burn out. It’s a trap that many foundation years doctors fall into because the highly competitive environment is so easy to get caught up in.
If you truly love medicine and it’s your passion and dream career, then it’s a marathon not a sprint. Remember, your appraisers and teachers will only ever compare your abilities with yourself, so make sure you do the same.
Top survival tips
- Find your own way – you will meet many people on this career path who will come and go from your life. Learn the necessary lessons from them and let go of anything that doesn’t serve you.
- Create your own path of opportunities - it doesn’t have to be the obvious path. Perhaps you ask to shadow a Registrar in your specialty.
- Keep a portfolio – This is a great way to record your cases and experiences. There are numerous digital portfolios available online which are super easy to use. Recording all your procedures and reflections not only helps you to improve, but it shows you just how much you have learnt.
Practitioner Health
Offered by the NHS - this is a free and confidential service designed to help health and care professionals. The trainee doctor support service aims to offer a range of interventions to support doctors at all stages of their training, helping you to understand the environment in which you work. They will assess and design a support programme to meet your individual needs.
Find out more at www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk
