How did you learn to not take things personally?
Older patients are so difficult to deal with. I encountered my first mean patient today and she embarrassed me in front of my instructor, my instructor reassured me I did nothing wrong and some people just like to put on a show. The “pep” talk from my classmate just made me feel worse and geez, I’ve never felt more incompetent.
I know it’s apart of the experience, you won’t always get lovely people, not everything will be perfect, we’re still learning, and yada yada. I’ve never considered myself to be one with thin skin but being someone with autism who has communication difficulties I feel like I have so many odds stacked against me and I hate to feel like I’m maybe just not cut out for this— I see all my classmates conversations skills and how funny they can be and I wish I could just be normal, it seems so easy for them. I’ve dedicated my whole life to healthcare and I’ve worked my ass off to prove people wrong. I mean I want to go to medical school to become a surgeon for gods sake but what if I can’t handle it? I know I’m overthinking and I’m not actually planning on quitting because of this one encounter but it’s definitely discouraging— leaving behind the medical world would mean losing a huge part of my identity so I will continue even if a patient punches me in the face but I just need to grow accustomed to this.
How did you learn to detach yourself from these situations and not take things so personally? Give me mindsets I can put my head in please
Edit: thank you to those leaving helpful comments and sharing their own experiences <3 I’m trying to flip it around to asses the whole interaction to see where I could’ve approached the situation differently to apply it for the next time. I just need to remind myself that I am still a student so everything is a teaching experience. I’ll get the hang of it and as for the ones leaving unproductive comments, you’re for sure giving me more practice at realizing sometimes its better to just let it go.. so hey, thank you too