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too quiet to be a doctor?

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hi,

i really wanted to do medicine at university as i'm fascinated with the science behind it but my confidence has been really knocked by people i know and teachers who say i'm way too quiet and will never thrive in med school.

i am quite a shy person generally, i don't like public speaking at all and loud people can really intimidate me.

Any advice?? Tips on gaining confidence?

I don't think being 'loud' is particularly great tbh. And for me it's a skill that I had to learn through my interviews than anything else. It's always great to do something like Oxfam or other voluntary things as it puts you in an environment where you need to communicate with strangers.

But at the end of the day, the vast majority are in the same boat as you. It's just practice but you'll get there!

Reply 21

Ghotay

Original post by Angury

-snip-

PRSOM - great advice

Original post by medicstar

Have you needed to do presentations in front of large groups of people? Did you find the patient contact intimidating at first?? Thanks :smile:

Largest presentation i have had to do in medical school was to 40 of my peers. Not going to lie I was bricking it. The majority of presentations I have done have been relatively informal small-group stuff to people I knew well, which is much less scary. And doing it every 2 weeks gets you desensitised fairly quickly. It's pretty much impossible to do medicine without doing presentations, but it IS a learned skill, and even bad anxiety is possible to overcome.

I was horrible at talking to people when I started my degree. I struggled with asking a shop assistant for help, and couldn't small talk at all. One thing I think is important to remember is that this is completely normal for the vast majority of 18 year olds! Even the people around you who seem very loud and confident - you would be surprised how quiet they can get when outside of their comfort zones and suddenly, for example, expected to comfort a confused elderly person. Very few people have that as a natural ability.

The other thing is there are LOTS of avenues you can go down with medicine, and there will be one that fits your interests and personality. Google "medicine speciality flow chart" and you'll see there are lots of (comical) descriptions of different specialities with different amounts of sociability/patient contact etc. required.

Finally - the people who are loud and brash might be the ones who look good or impressive on first impressions, but that does not mean they are the better doctors! Often all a patient wants from you it to feel listened to, and if you're a quieter person you may be able to better give that person what they need. Lots of room for different styles of doctoring, and none of them are wrong.

Don't be put off if medicine is what you are sure you want to do

Reply 22

telepathicturtle

Original post by medicstar

I am super introverted
I avoid shops that don't have a self checkout
I have an offer from ucl and got interviews at oxford, kings and aberdeen (oxford rejected me :/ but think i'll get an offer from kings and aberdeen, although ucl is my first choice)

But honestly it doesn't matter, you can learn how to talk to people better (i really have a problem with smalltalk) and things mentioned by others like volunteering can be good. I personally also tried getting into more debaty public speaking stuff and that helped me a bit; but there's a place in medicine for everyone and you don't have to be extroverted to be a doctor.
There's a really good article on this on the student bmj where doctors talk about introvertion in medicine and how it's useful. I think one of them actually says they prefer to teach introverts because they can teach them communication skills but some other skills like listening skills and deep analysis that introverts often possess are much harder to learn ( I will link if the site lets me)

http://student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj.i2173

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 23

StationToStation

Lots of great advice here.

I'm fairly introverted. Even though I wasn't super confident with talking to strangers or large groups before I rarely get nervous now. Here's what I think has helped me:

1. Volunteering. Going up to people isn't so bad when you have a structure to what you're going to say, and by the time you've approached 40 strangers from all sorts of backgrounds during your shift, you just don't even have the energy to get nervous anymore.

2. Making an effort to speak in class. It can be easier to start by giving quick and straightforward answers in classes like maths. You might not study a subject like this but I found it really helpful to be active in philosophy; you speak for a longer time, and you need to expose your own thoughts and opinions and some people will almost inevitably disagree. It's uncomfortable but you get used to it.

3. Interviews. Traveling alone, being interviewed by lots of people and chatting to other applicants and students can be overwhelming, but personally I had lots of fun and felt much more confident when it was over. Even though the interview process is supposed to, you know, get you into med school, it's also a great opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and become more independent.

We'll see how I feel when I'm actually a doctor but I think that being introverted has been an advantage in my volunteering and my health care related job. Most people seem really happy to just have someone who's friendly and willing to listen to them. I think that being introverted has made me better at sensing whether people want to talk or not, what kind of tone they want the conversation to have (small talk vs venting about their problems), and what kind of questions to ask to get to the root of their issues or the right information. As a doctor, these skills can probably help you establish better and deeper relationships with your patients than someone super extroverted who's loud and assertive and talks "at" their patients.

Anyway, I think it could be useful for you to make a conscious effort to push your boundaries little by little. You'll be surprised by how quickly you improve. Even if you still feel nervous by the time you get to med school, the 5/6 years will give you plenty of opportunities to gain confidence. And even if that doesn't work out there's always pathology. :wink: