How Doctors Make Mistakes In Dr. Brian Goldman's Ted Talk

During Dr. Brian Goldman’s Ted Talk, he discusses how doctors make mistakes. He had been a doctor for many years and still to this day makes mistakes. Why do we as a society think terribly about doctors when they misdiagnose? Is it okay for doctors to make mistakes? The answer is, yes. After all, they are human just like everyone else in the world. In Dr. Goldman’s talk, he begins talking about baseball. He brings up batting averages. These are scores given to players on how well they hit. Each player is judged on a score out of 10 hits. If a player hits 3 out of 10 then the player's score is 300. Surprisingly, this is considered to be a good baseball player. Goldman says that a score of 400 is “legendary”. Mind you, this is not even …show more content…
Becoming a doctor is not an easy road to take. It takes a lot of time and effort for many years. When they finally become a doctor, they become even busier. Doctors work 12-hour days and are on call 24/7. It is one surgery after another, One patient after the other. It is non-stop all day long for them. Being a doctor becomes their life. Which means they become very close with their patients. So, when something happens to one of their patients it is devastating, not only to the family, but for the doctors too. Dr. Goldman talks about how doctors don’t have anyone to talk to about mistakes they have made without being judged or put down. Most of them just keep their thoughts and feelings bottled up inside, just as young Dr. Goldman did. Can you imagine not being able to talk about something that is weighing on your mind constantly? Think about this: if a doctor makes a mistake and holds on to the mistake, as Dr. Goldman did as a young resident, it would impact your performance on other patients. All Dr. Goldman could think about was why did he send her home? Why didn’t he ask his attending about everything? He said he even started to question if he really wanted to be a doctor. Doctors should be 100% well in their own mind when they go to diagnose people. They need a way to let loose and talk to others about their issues. Maybe hospitals should have someone for the doctors to talk to or even make some kind of support group with the staff. Who knows, they may even get some good advice from others who have been working longer than them. Hospitals need to have leaders that are willing to take time to ensure their doctors are good to go when they