Resident devotional #2: Here to serve, not please

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid. — Proverbs 12:1 NIV

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. — Proverbs 29:25 NIV

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. — Galations 1:10 NIV

As a medical student and in residency, in part because of the way medical education is structured, it can be easy for your main goal to slowly and imperceptibly turn from helping other people to pleasing your higher-ups. A lot of your clinical rotations are graded subjectively by the senior doctors (attendings) that you work under. You learn one method of presentation from one attending one week, and then the next week a different attending wants an entirely different method of presentation. You work under one attending who likes you and your rotation goes great, and then the next week you get a new attending and everything you do is wrong for some reason. 

You’re doing the same thing, trying to be your best, and you get different results just because the various people you work under have different perceptions of you, of their field, and of the way things should be done. And so if you’re not careful, your focus can shift from “how do I learn as much as I can on this rotation in order to be a better doctor?” to “how do I please this attending enough so that I get a good evaluation?”

Let me tell you what I wish I had known as a medical student and as a first and second year resident: helping people is good, but pleasing people is a trap.

There are important skills that you need to learn in order to become a good doctor and to help people more effectively. The attendings and senior residents are there to teach you those skills. You should therefore be open to their help when they are teaching you those skills, even if they’re being a little bit hard on you in their passion to help you get better. Proverbs 12:1 says that “whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, and whoever hates correction is stupid” (NIV, emphasis mine). You are a learner, and the smartest thing you can do (and the best thing you can do for your patients!) is to be open to advice and correction from your seniors and attendings.

But the thing is that your seniors and your attendings are people too, and people don’t do everything right. You will encounter the jaded seniors who take advantage of their junior residents and belittle them. You will encounter those attendings who have no patience and who write you off way too early. You’ll encounter the relatively nice seniors who are so busy that they have no time to manage all the patients on their service and teach you the ropes of medicine at the same time. There is not a single person you work for who is not a human like you are. Not even the most celebrated attending at your hospital is a different species from you, and everyone is capable of error. 

The same book of Proverbs that emphasizes the importance of discipline, teachability and respect for your elders also says that “the fear of man is a snare” (29:25). In other words, being afraid of any human — whether attending, senior resident, or resident bully — is a trap. Running around trying to please the attending or senior, while it may seem like a good strategy, will eventually prevent you from becoming the best doctor you can be. You’ll be so focused on the intricacies of a person who will be in your life for a couple of years at most, that you’ll hinder your development in a career that’s supposed to last 30 years or more. 

Be teachable. Be willing to help people. But don’t be a people pleaser.