Physician Imposter Syndrome

Physician imposer syndrome is a mindset typified by:

• Feeling of inadequacy and self-doubt about your abilities
• Questioning whether you made the right career choice
• The inability to recognize imperfections and foibles in a culture that does not tolerate self-doubt

Here are some tips on managing your imposter syndrome.

It’s common to experience impostors when taking on a new, more senior role. That negative self-talk can feel justified when you were originally rejected from the job or you assume a role for which you are not yet trained to be independent. This author presents four strategies to quiet the imposter syndrome voices in your head if you weren’t the first pick for the job.

Starting in medical school, the signs and symptoms are usually self-limited once you gain some experience, maturity, and confidence, realizing that most everyone around you, while they don't admit it,?is in the same boat,?But just because you feel paranoid does not mean there are not people after you. In fact, there might come a point when the stark reality hits you that you have been studying to?be a doctor or practicing medicine for the wrong reasons and that, increasingly, it is harder and harder to keep up the act. At that point, for the sake of you and your patients, you should cut your losses and move on.?The same holds true for physician wannapreneurs.

Increasingly medical students and residents are taking that approach, creating companies, serving as advisors to digital health startups and deciding that they need to be all-in and more medical training will have to take a back seat.?

So, what are some signs that it might be time to pull the plug and move on?

1. It is no longer fun and there is little or no joy in going to work. You no longer feel the love.?You are suffering from a DISease.

2. Someone, like your boss or you spouse, is insisting that you find something else to do since you are creating havoc at home and are "disruptive" at work

.3. You are constantly grumpy and disagreeable.

4. You spend more time reading The Wall Street Journal than the New England Journal.

5. Patients say you should smile more.

6. You worry that you might hurt someone, including yourself by using drugs or doing stupid, risky things.

7. You have saved enough to tell the world to go fly a kite.

8. You begin to read obituaries or talk about how everyone is getting sick.

9. You have an opportunity to pursue a non-clinical career opportunity.

10. You have not taken a vacation day in three years.

The same syndrome applies to physician entrepreneurs, particularly minorities and women, or those that buy into the myth that doctors make lousy business people.

The positive side of the imposter syndrome is it gives you the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and challenges you to learn new things, in essence, creating a space to "fake it until you make it" .

In the best of all possible worlds, Dr Pangloss would be a physician first and an entrepreneur second. However, we should not dismiss those who decide to take the road less travelled. They, too,?add tremendous value and make things better for patients and society. History is filled with them.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack