Book 2 Unit 6
A famous surgeon tells about the importance of self-confidence from his own experience.
The Making of a Surgeon
Dr. Nolen
How does a doctor recognize the point in time when he is finally a "surgeon"? As my year as chief resident drew to a close I asked myself this question on more than one occasion.
The answer, I concluded, was self-confidence. When you can say to yourself, "There is no surgical patient I cannot treat competently, treat just as well as or better than any other surgeon" - then, and not until then, you are indeed a surgeon. I was nearing that point.
Take, for example, the emergency situations that we encountered almost every night. The first few months of the year I had dreaded the ringing of the telephone. I knew it meant another critical decision to be made. Often, after I had told Walt or Larry what to do in a particular situation, I'd have trouble getting back to sleep. I'd review all the facts of the case and, not infrequently, wonder if I hadn't made a poor decision. More than once at two or three in the morning, after lying awake for an hour, I'd get out of bed, dress and drive to the hospital to see the patient myself. It was the only way I could find the peace of mind I needed to relax.
Now, in the last month of my residency, sleeping was no longer a problem. There were still situations in which I couldn't be certain my decision had been the right one, but I had learned to accept this as a constant problem for a surgeon, one that could never be completely resolved - and I could live with it. So, once I had made a considered decision, I no longer dwelt on it. Reviewing it wasn't going to help and I knew that with my knowledge and experience, any decision I'd made was bound to be a sound one. It was a nice feeling.
In the operating room I was equally confident. I knew I had the knowledge, the skill, the experience to handle any surgical situation I'd ever encounter in practice. There were no more butterflies in my stomach when I opened up an abdomen or a chest. I knew that even if the case was one in which it was impossible to anticipate the problem in advance, I could handle whatever l found. I'd sweated through my share of stab wounds of the belly, of punctured lungs, of compound fractures. I had sweated over them for five years. I didn't need to sweat any more.
Nor was I afraid of making mistakes. I knew that when I was out in practice I would inevitably err at one time or another and operate on someone who didn't need surgery or sit on someone who did. Five years earlier - even one year earlier - I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had had to take sole responsibility for a mistake in judgment. Now I could. I still dreaded errors - would do my best to avoid them -- but I knew they were part of a surgeon's life. I could accept this fact with calmness because I knew that if I wasn't able to avoid a mistake, chances were that no other surgeon could have, either.
This all sounds conceited and I guess it is - but a surgeon needs conceit. He needs it to encourage him in trying moments when he's bothered by the doubts and uncertainties that are part of the practice of medicine. He has to feel that he's as good as and probably better than any other surgeon in the world. Call it conceit - call it self-confidence; whatever it was, I had it.
課文翻譯
一位著名的外科醫生以自己的親身經歷來說明自信的重要性。
外科醫生的成功之道
諾蘭醫生
一位醫生怎樣辨認自己終於成了一名「外科醫生」的那一時刻呢？在我任住院主任醫師的那一年快要結束的時候，我曾不止一次地問過自己這個問題。
我最後認定，問題的答案在於「自信」二字。當你能夠對自己說：「任何外科病人我都能勝任進行治療，我的治療跟其他外科醫生一樣高明，甚至比任何外科醫生都更為高明」——那時，而且只有到了那時，你才真正成了一名外科醫生。當時我正接近那個時刻。
就以我們幾乎每晚都會碰到的急診情況為例吧。在那一年的最初幾個月，我一直害怕聽到電話鈴響。我知道電話鈴聲意味著又要作出一個生死攸關的決定。事情往往是這樣：在我告訴沃爾特或拉裡對於某一特殊情況應如何處理之後，我就很難再重新入睡了。我會重溫那位急診病人的整個病情，常常會懷疑自己是否做出了不妥的決定。不止一次，在我躺了一個小時還睡不著之後，我會在凌晨兩三點鐘從床上跳起來，穿好衣服，駕車去醫院親自探視病人。唯有這樣我才能找到安心休息所需要的內心平靜。
然而，在我做住院醫生的最後一個月，睡眠已不再是個問題了。在有些情況下我仍然不能確定自己的決定是否正確，但我已學會把這看作一個外科醫師經常會遇到的問題，一個永遠也不能完全解決的問題——我已能適應它了。所以，我一旦經過深思熟慮作出某個決定，就不再去多想它了。多想也不會有什麼幫助，而且我知道，憑我的知識和經驗，我作出的任何決定肯定都是穩妥的。這是一種令人愉快的感覺。
在手術室裡我也同樣充滿信心。我知道自己的知識、技術和經驗足以對付我在開業行醫中將會碰到的任何外科病例。當我切開病人的腹部或胸腔時，我不再緊張得瑟瑟發抖了。我知道，即使碰上事先無法預見其問題所在的病例，我也能處置我發現的任何情況。我戰戰兢兢地治療過交在我手上的腹部刺傷、肺部穿孔以及複合性骨折等病例。這類外科手術我已經戰戰兢兢地幹了五年。我再也不必擔驚受怕了。
而且，我也不再怕犯錯誤了。我知道在我出去開業行醫時，說不定什麼時候我就會不可避免地出差錯；我會給不需要手術治療的病人開刀，也可能會把需要動手術的病人忽略過去。五年前——甚至一年前——如果我不得不為一次判斷上的失誤負全部責任的話，我是沒法容忍自己的。現在我能了。我仍然害怕犯錯誤——願意竭盡全力避免出錯——但我知道這是外科醫生日常生活的一部分。我之所以能夠平靜地接受這一事實，是因為我知道：如果我不能避免出差錯，那麼換了任何別的外科醫生很可能也不能避免。
這些話聽上去很自負，而且我以為這的確是自負——但外科醫生就是需要這種自負。當他受到行醫中必定會遇到的重重疑慮的煎熬時，他需要「自負」來支撐自己度過這些難受的時刻。他必須覺得，他與世上任何一位外科醫生相比都毫不遜色，甚至還技高一籌。你管這叫自負也好，叫自信也罷；不管你叫它什麼，反正我是有了。
本文由王樹振老師編輯整理，圖片來自網絡
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