Surgical self-reflection

As I muddle my way through the surgical clerkship I am reminded that continuous self reflection and precise revision of ideas, thought processes, and methods for carrying out tasks are skills that are developed alongside clinical acumen that comes with experience. 

As we worked through the didactic year, we all had to develop our own studying styles and methods for parsing out the critical information from all of the LOADS of information we were presented.  We had to continually monitor the way we learned to get to the key features of what we needed to learn.  After each exam we needed to evaluate how we had studied to determine if it was the right way to do it - did we get the result that we'd wanted? 

After each surgery and each patient encounter, I have been evaluating the way that things have gone.  Did I ask all the right questions?  Did I anticipate the surgeon's movements well enough?  The most interesting aspect of this has been that the surgeon I've been working with does this, too.  After every case he goes through the steps of the case no matter how routine to make sure that it went as well as it possibly could.  If something wasn't right, he has to figure out why.  This is a skill we could all benefit from developing and one that I know we as students have to work through.  But the challenge and the charge is to continue to self-reflect and develop new ways (better ways) of practicing medicine. 

It's not that I think this is news to anyone - rather it is probably mundane by the end of your didactic year.  But it should not be mundane or taken for granted.  We should all work to analyze each suture, each H&P, each patient encounter - and make the most of our experiences so our patients will benefit in the end.