Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome, defined by the psychologists who first coined the term as the internal experience of doubting your abilities is, to say the least, rampant among people practicing medicine. This is a surprise in itself, considering they have broken a number of barriers and ghosts holding them back to reach the place they find themselves in.

In what is considered the largest study of its kind, Stanford Medicine researchers in 2022 delved into the network of professionals across multiple fields and emerged with some very well established truths. 

Compared to other professions, imposter syndrome was most prevalent in medical practitioners. Physicians are at a 30% increased risk of reporting symptoms of imposter syndrome compared to non-physicians. Of course, this study was conducted only in the US, but we can certainly extrapolate it to all countries, as to be very frank, medical courses all over the world are subpar at best.

Burnout, among interns and practicing doctors, plays a very important role in this too. As they increase their work hours, and strive to maximize the amount of patients they treat, the patient’s experiences worsen and mistakes happen way too easily for anyone’s liking.

Now, the question arises: How do you approach it?

Simple, just don’t freeze. I recently came upon an insightful TED talk by Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes about using Imposter syndrome to your benefit, and his advice was this: don’t freeze.

You might feel like you’re unworthy of being here, you feel you are in a place miles away from your comfort zone, you feel it was not your skill but external factors that brought you here. Well, you got in here, nothing’s going to change. If an opportunity lands in your hands, just don’t freeze.

Use it to your advantage, don’t be afraid to ask for advice if you feel out of your depth, utilise the advice to improve yourself, hone yourself to become a better person.

Conquering imposter syndrome might be a difficult task, but redirecting it into a killing machine of productivity for yourself might be the best decision you take in your life.

P.S. The student who wrote this article might have a mild to moderate case of imposter syndrome themselves, so take everything with a grain of salt.