Striving for perfect care of patients denies training and medical education
26 October 2025·seedling·Sabiqul Hoque
Follow On Thoughts
- Hence we often deny patients of the choice, “learning must be stolen” (Gawande 2002, 32). If we offer patients the choice to choose between the novice and the expert, then patients will often not be offered the choice. It may be more ethical to not allow anyone to choose, if learning must be stolen.
Connected Ideas (Similar / Opposing Ideas)
- Blog post on the idea
- external link
Backlinks
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Book Summary > Key Themes
- Medicine’s sacredness comes from practicing on real people
- Training vs perfection dilemma
- Errors as system failures, not moral failings
- Humility–confidence tension in clinicians
- Collaborative medical decision‑making
Questions raised by book
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Fleeting Notes > Conflict between best healthcare and experience for novices
#+endquote
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Fleeting Notes > Giving choice to patients for novices to learn, will inevitably result in denial. It is therefore often forced and the choice is not always given
#+endquote
- Striving for perfect care of patients denies training and medical education see follow on thoughts
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Book Summary > Key Themes
Questions raised by book
- How much risk is acceptable when training new doctors? (see First Do No Harm … Unless it’s Your First Time)
- When should intuition override evidence, if ever?
- Can empathy survive burnout?
- How should fallibility be explained to patients without eroding trust?
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Fleeting Notes > Conflict between best healthcare and experience for novices
#+beginquote “Three‑quarters of what I do today I never learned in residency,”
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
Fleeting Notes > Giving choice to patients for novices to learn, will inevitably result in denial. It is therefore often forced and the choice is not always given
#+beginquote In psychology, there’s something called the broken‑leg problem. A statistical formula may be highly successful in predicting whether or not a person will go to a movie in the next week. But someone who knows that this person is laid up with a broken leg will beat the formula. No formula can take into account the infinite range of such exceptional events. That’s why doctors are convinced that they’d better stick with their well‑honed instincts when they’re making a diagnosis.
Cite this note
@online{hoque2025striving,
author = {Sabiqul Hoque},
title = {Striving for perfect care of patients denies training and medical education},
year = {2025},
url = {https://sabicool.github.io/Braindump/notes/20251026104055-striving_for_perfect_care_of_patients_denies_training_and_medical_education.html},
organization = {Braindump}
}