4 ways to know if you're a good doctor
Industry Buzz
My assessment of my goodness as a doctor comes down to the extent to which I live up to my values in my day to day practice.
—@notherbadobject via Reddit
Several colleagues think I am worthy of looking after their loved ones and it means the world to me.
—@Secretly_A_Cop via Reddit
How do physicians actually know they’re doing a good job? This deceptively simple question posted on Reddit cuts to a deeper professional anxiety.
The post reflects a familiar tension in modern medicine. Physicians are measured constantly through relative value units (RVUs), throughput, length of stay, and patient satisfaction scores.
Yet many clinicians describe a persistent blind spot: The metrics that dominate performance reviews often feel only loosely connected to what matters most in clinical care. What would doctors measure instead?
Related: The one thing that’s sure to make you a better doctor1. If colleagues recommend you to their family and friends
“This is clearly more outpatient related but whenever this happens it's the biggest boost to my ego and warms my heart. Several colleagues think I am worthy of looking after their loved ones and it means the world to me,” said Reddit user and HCP @Secretly_A_Cop.
Reddit user and surgeon @Melkorianmorgoth agrees. “When the OR staff asks for you or recommends you. You know you’ve made it,” they said.
2. When your patients show their appreciation
“I've got a whole shelf in my office of thank-yous and presents from patients, medical students, and coworkers. If I ever feel down, I just look at the shelf and maybe read a few of the letters. It helps me remember the cases where I literally saved a life, or made a diagnosis others couldn't, or was otherwise lucky enough to be the right person in the right place at the right time. That I'm making enormous differences in the lives of so many people,” said Reddit user and HCP @7-and-a-switchblade.
Reddit user and HCP @acutehypoburritoism agreed, noting that it’s even more exciting when it’s from a patient who’s made a lot of progress. “One of my favorite thank you gifts ever is the genuinely delicious grilled cheese sandwich that one of my patients recovering from a traumatic upper limb amputation made me using his temporary prosthetic limb while I was taking care of him in acute rehab,” they said.
3. When your patients show understanding and improvement of their condition
“When patients come in and say ‘I feel better’ or ‘Oh, I understand now.’ Bonus if it's after deprescribing a bunch of benzos. When someone gains more understanding of their health conditions, makes lifestyle changes (goes all in) and gets to see the effects. Pulling panel data and seeing a whole bunch of A1cs improve,” said Reddit user and family medicine physician @Bitemytonguebloody.
4. If you live up to your own values
“My assessment of my goodness as a doctor comes down to the extent to which I live up to my values in my day to day practice. This is because there are plenty of lousy, slimy doctors out there whose patients love them or who have been able to fool their colleagues into thinking they’re a lot sharper than they really are. So if I only assess myself based on what others think of me, I’m really measuring my social skills and my effectiveness at image control (or frank manipulation). Even ‘objective’ data like treatment outcomes can be easily confounded,” said Reddit user and HCP @notherbadobject.
They continue, “I … ask myself, am I bringing a high level of integrity and honesty to my work? Am I holding myself to a high intellectual standard as I develop my case formulations and consider treatment options? Am I showing up with empathy and authenticity? Am I keeping my arrogance, laziness, and various biases in check? Am I fulfilling my professional and ethical obligations to teach and train junior clinicians? Am I enacting a commitment to reflective practice? Am I doing a good job of consulting with colleagues when I’m not sure what to do? Am I treating my patients the way I’d want another doctor to care for someone I love? If I’m doing all of those things, I can be pretty confident that I’m a good doctor.”