Our training has taught us to rely on white swans and fear red swans. In this episode you'll learn why approaching your patients this way creates roadblocks, can lead to misdiagnosis and mistreatment of the patient, causes you distress, and distracts you from reality.

The way to reduce medical errors, build rapport with patients, and increase efficiency is to identify the black swans--the unknown unknowns--and turn them into white swans--known knowns.

White swans exist both in the real world and in our brain. Red swans do not exist in the real world but do exist in our brain. Black swans exist in the real world but do not exist in our brain...unless we identify them by asking the right questions.

Great black swan questions:

-What don't I know?

-What would make this picture whole and complete?

-Is this a problem worth solving for the patient?

-Is my belief triad (belief in self, belief in surgery, belief in patient) strong?

-Is the patient's belief triad (belief in self, belief in surgery, belief in me as a surgeon) strong?

I want to hear from you! If you implement this framework, please email me your story at [email protected].

Empowered Surgeons Group is available now! This program will teach you everything you wished you learned but didn't in training. Read about everything you get in the program here or sign up immediately here.