Year: 2023

If I were to quickly ask everyone how perfect or precise they believe a doctor or other medical professional is with everything they do, I am sure many would answer “100% perfect.” Brian Goldman, a physician himself, discusses in his TedTalk Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that? that this perception of doctors and medical field workers is not true. He owns up to some of his mistakes during his time as a physician in this talk and makes it clear that as long as the medical field is run by humans, it will never be perfect. I would describe Goldman’s speech as one which takes a look into the side of medicine that no one wants to talk or think about: the mistakes: the mistakes made by individuals regarded as the brightest and most brilliant in our world today.

We can’t approve of mistakes or faulty medicine, but we must accept it and learn from the mistakes that are made.

Batting Average

Goldman makes reference to batting average which personally appealed to me as a baseball player. He questioned the audience how high they thought doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals batting average is. By batting average, I garnered that he was referring to success rate on procedures. He imposes the fact that everyone expects doctors to be perfect and bat 1.000 as a professional who is practicing on injured or sick patients. And I couldn’t agree more with him in the fact that no matter how hard we try, mistakes will be made. I know many might not agree, but in no way is it reasonable to expect doctors, nurses, and other specialists to be perfect with every procedure, diagnosis, or maneuver that they take on. Now I am sure that if I were to ask any medical professional if they strive to be perfect or wish to be perfect that their answer would be nothing short of a strong “yes.” They are here to take care of all of us and the professionals I have shadowed so far in my early career take patients’ lives and well-being serious.

Understanding What You’re Working With

Following his analogy about batting average, Goldman was able to provide us with some of his biggest blunders as a practicing professional. He made sure to include that medical professionals can never look at patients the same. This was something that really stood out to me. We are always expected to go out look for symptoms, identify markers, and treat accordingly. This is unrealistic. As Goldman explained, no two patients are the same, no two patients describe what they have going on the same, and no two patients will ever react to a treatment the same exact way. When he said that, it put things into perspective for me. How can we strive to practice medicine perfectly when our patients can differ so much from one to the other. We can go by what the book says but that can only take us so far since everyone is different.

Learning From Experience

To finish out his talk, Goldman wanted to end on a positive note. He went on about how important it is to learn from what we do, the things we do right, and the mistakes we make. He made sure to reiterate that no one is ever perfect in anything they do. He said that we should be striving to learn something everyday, it doesn’t have to be a lot but just one thing. I think that was such a strong way to finish off. By learning one thing from one patient and applying it to another case, we could find success. Mistakes aren’t complete failure if we learn from what was done or what happened. We can’t approve of mistakes or faulty medicine, but we must accept it and learn from the mistake that are made.

Ultimately, I think that it is important that we understand our doctors are humans and until they get replaced by machines, which I don’t foresee happening anytime soon, we can’t expect perfection. We can keep learning and keep inching ourselves towards the perfect medical world but I can assure, and I am sure Dr. Goldman could too, we are still so far away from that.

As an incoming freshman last year, I found it extremely helpful to develop a set of skills and characteristics that would benefit me in my years at Penn State Altoona. From that skillset and character traits I deemed necessary, I was able to pick out the two most important skills to obtain and the two most beneficial character traits. The skills include time management and a strong work ethic, while the character traits I intend to proclaim necessary are responsibility and a positive attitude.

I one-hundred-percent attribute all of my early success in college here at Penn State Altoona to the my revamped time management skills and work ethic, along with being responsible/accountable and looking for the best in all situations.

Managing Time & Developing Work Ethic

The first skill that I think students should develop while attending Penn State is time management. Time management is the ability to use my time wisely and be efficient with my actions. By managing my time well, I got to work ahead on assignments, spend more time thinking about the assignments, budget my time for other needs such as eating, sleeping, exercising, and socializing.  The way I developed my time management skills was to get myself involved with many things on campus, being on an athletic team, and challenging myself to stay on top of my own schedule. Ways I developed my time management skills outside of campus include reading books like Kevin Kruse’s 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management and also reviewing articles. The article that left the greatest impression on me was What is Time Management? written by the Mind Tools Content Team. This book and article were extremely helpful in sharpening my time management skills.

The second skill I believe students should develop while they are at Penn State is a strong work ethic. I’ve always believed, I get out what I put into something. This is true regarding higher education.  I would describe a strong work ethic as a desire to do everything in my power to achieve a goal. As a second-year student, this is important to me because I recognize that the more effort I put into something the better the product will be. This is not only true for schoolwork; this is also true for creating relationships while I have been at Penn State, practicing for the baseball team, and working out in the fitness center. For those reasons, I found it key to put in 100% effort in everything I do. The places I found the most success for developing a strong work ethic is finding motivation through Jocko Willink’s motivational videos and songs.

Responsibility & Optimistic Attitude

In my mind, when I think of which character traits are most important for one to develop while at Penn State, the first thing that comes to my head is to be responsible. Being responsible is to take accountability for myself and my actions. The best way I found to develop this skill is to hold myself to the highest standard possible and be tough on myself at times if I realize I’m not meeting that standard. Another way I was able to develop this skill was to observe others and surround myself with others who hold themselves to high standards because I tend to be an individual who conforms to those who I am with and surrounding myself with. Life lessons from parents have also been instrumental in my development of responsibility. Parents take experiences and help you realize what you can be doing better with reinforcement.

 The net trait I believe was key to develop while I am at Penn State was a positive attitude. Looking at opportunities with a stellar attitude has opened up new point of views for me and has urged me to put myself out there. This new perspective has completely changed me as a person since high school. I have enjoyed so many new things by not turning my nose up at it with initial disgust. Just like with the character trait, responsibility, I found most success in gaining this character trait through videos on social media, podcasts, and even some articles online including one from Johns Hopkins, The Power of Positive Thinking. This article reshaped my views and has helped me realize what a positive outlook on life can really do for me. The sheer encouragement to have a positive outcome and the results others got with the attitude change has really driven me to see how important it is and ultimately drove me to make the change as well.

As cliche as it may sound, it is true, college is a completely different animal than high school. It requires changes in your lifestyle to be successful and these were a few I made. Being able to change for the better like this has granted me access to territories I never thought I would discover including the likes of succeeding as not only a student by making Dean’s List every semester so far, but also has been a direct feeder into my work output on the baseball field. I one-hundred-percent attribute all of my early success in college here at Penn State Altoona to the my revamped time management skills and work ethic, along with being responsible/accountable and looking for the best in all situations.