This Student’s Shame is Changing Our Curriculum

Doctors and medical students often have an identity based on perfection and infallibility.  Often it that identity comes from their own expectations of themselves, and sometimes it comes from external sources.  Whatever the source, it's both motivating and problematic to feel shame when mistakes are made or when knowledge is imperfect.

Fourth-year student and future OB/Gyn doc Luci Howard visited with MD/PhD student Aline Sandouk and M1s Caitlin Matteson, Morgan Kennedy, and Emerald Dohleman to talk about her project to create a curriculum about shame and medical student identity.  Her shame--as a first-gen college graduate, as a perfectionist, and as someone who's made mistakes--was holding her hostage in some ways, but now her curriculum works to illuminate and combat the negative effects of shame in medical education, and it will soon be integrated into the College of Medicine's curriculum. Her work means that future medical learners will learn how to react productively and rationally when they inevitably achieve less-than-perfection.  

We Want to Hear From You: Would you be willing to share experiences that have felt shameful in order to help others? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime or email [email protected].