Thread by @medicalaxioms

As you write your medical worker character and define your style, you’ll be faced with a conundrum. [thread]

You can’t please everyone.

Things that will help you make a therapeutic alliance, build rapport, make a connection, build trust, care for the sick, lessen loneliness and isolation may work for the majority and backfire with a few patients.

I would implore you not to build your style to appeal to the exception.

If you water down your medical persona to the point where it offends no one, you’ll be such a mayonnaise sandwich you won’t get through to anyone.

You have to take risks. Try to create a medical character that is memorable so that maybe your patients will remember what you said.

Wing offended is not the worst thing that ever happened to a person. Some people would be offended in a room full of marshmallows. You can’t help them.

Create a style. Have a personality. Be different and noticeable and memorable.

If you succeed in never offending, you will probably succeed in never making a connection. You will become “some doctor” that came to visit the patient yesterday.

“What was her name?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she look like?”
“Can’t remember.”
“What did she say?”
“Not much.”

You’ll never get any credit for being boring and dull.

“I just love doctor Reid. He is so inoffensive!”

Take risks. Reach out. Find a style. Become a real doctor. A few people won’t like your style. Don’t sweat it. Don’t water yourself down. Don’t adjust for the exception.

Some people just love to spend their hours on earth offended. That’s why they invented twitter. Let them rant. Be thankful you don’t live that skinless life of hypersensitivity.

Be a doctor, a nurse, a therapist, a social worker AND be a person. A real character with passions and biases and opinions and style. Something solid and compelling and memorable. You’ll save more lives that way.