I recently shared my thoughts on Internal Medicine and my time on CTU (long story short - not a fan). The experience got me thinking about an older post of mine on CanMEDS roles and how the Manager role is an often-neglected yet vitally important aspect to being a physician.
Clerkship has dramatically changed some of my views on medicine, but this is one that couldn't have been reinforced more. The CTU is very much a team and the attending physician - as much as us clerks and the residents rely on them for their substantial medical knowledge - their main responsibility is to manage a rather large team of learners. I found I had the best experience - and patients seemed to have the best outcomes - not when the best medical expert was in charge of the CTU, but when the best manager was in charge.
The thing is, in medicine there aren't many people who aren't exceptionally knowledgeable. I like to think I'm a fairly intelligent, hard-working person, but truth be told I'm a pretty average medical student. I'm perfectly fine with that though and haven't focused my efforts on improving my standing relative to my class. The reason for this is that when I think of the physicians who have done the most capable job, in terms of what colleagues and patients think of them as well as what I've seen of their ability to do provide meaningful help for their patients, they're rarely the walking textbooks other physicians seem to be. Rather they incorporate all those other CanMEDS competencies, including the manager role, along with a high level of knowledge that is near-universal in medicine.
So, as long as my knowledge base can be reasonably described as average or better relative to my peers, I try to focus on other things, like being a good manager, or a good communicator, or a good advocate. In the long run, I believe that's what will make me the best physician I can be for my patients.
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