Donald Sonn understands the qualities that a doctor must possess in order to offer a high standard of care to patients and thus achieve success in their career.
2. Having enjoyed a successful career as a urologist that has seen
him win a number of awards in addition to achieving
membership in a variety of important trade organizations,
Donald Sonn understands the qualities that a doctor must
possess in order to offer a high standard of care to patients and
thus achieve success in their career.
Here he takes a look at some of the most important.
Confidence
As a doctor, you will essentially be perceived as an authority
figure by every patient that you interact with. They will expect
you to be the source of all of the knowledge that they need to
have about their condition and will expect you to understand
what you are talking about at all times. If you lack confidence,
you may find that wat you say is doubted more often,
regardless of whether it is correct or not, which may make it
more difficult to administer treatment.
3. Compassion
Most doctors have entered the profession because they have an
innate desire to help people, which is a trait that needs to be
maintained and nurtured during the course of their career. It is
easy to fall into the trap of becoming a little too cynical when you
have been a doctor for a number of years, so it is important to
remember that the patients you are working with are often
frightened and looking to you for help, so treat them in a humane
manner, rather than as simply another medical issue that you need
to solve.
4. Respectful
In addition to being compassionate, a doctor must also understand
that their patients are often wary because medical issues result in
them losing control of a situation. As such, the doctor should make
the effort to have conversations with their patients, rather than
simply talking at them. By doing this, you give them the
opportunity to ask questions and express fears, which will usually
make the patient feel like they are more in control of their
situation. This can make it much easier to provide treatment.
5. Perseverance
Donald Sonn notes that doctors will often come up against issues
that they don’t have an instant answer for, resulting in them having
to spend time doing the research in order to provide the correct
treatment to their patient. As such, a doctor must be able to
persevere in difficult situations, doing everything that they have to
do in order to help their patients.