Profile: What makes a good doctor?

By Edwin Ong, Assistant Director, Communications and Outreach

As medical school graduates make the progression to full-fledged doctors, how would they look back on their journey thus far? Has their training back in school prepared them well for their current capacities? Did their expectations of the past translate to current realities?

We speak to five of LKCMedicine alumni, who are now practising doctors across various disciplines and hospitals, to share their thoughts and reflections on what makes a good doctor.

What do you think are the key attributes that distinguish a good doctor from an average one?

Dr Toh Ching Han (TCH): A good doctor is one who strives to deliver personalised care, in order to treat the patient and not just the disease. They should also be able to reflect on their own practice and be committed to continued self-improvement.

Dr Stewart Retnam (SR): A good doctor aligns good clinical care with the patient’s own preferences and priorities - which often vary from person to person, as everyone is different.

Dr Lee Kai Wei (LKW): A good doctor possesses clarity of thought - the ability to synthesise what is important, and to clearly formulate plans (A, B and C) for what is important. They are decisive, because there is often no single best plan, and sometimes you just have to choose something and run with it - with the ability and humility to admit when it’s not working and to change tack. They are surgically competent - most people can be trained to be a decent and safe surgeon, but some are just naturally gifted. They are good communicators - both in terms of comfort and empathy, and in terms of clarity of communication, so that patients and their families can understand fully what they are going through. Different patients require different communication styles, and the best communicators can adjust this and connect with everyone.

Dr Lee Cheok Hon (LCH): Putting in consistent and conscious effort to being an all-rounder. A good doctor must be proficient in medical knowledge and skills, while remaining empathetic and caring to patients and family, colleagues and juniors. The challenge lies in finding the energy, discipline, and determination to achieve this, day after day and night after night, while balancing your duties with your other life commitments.

Dr Aaron Goh Qi Yang (AG): Roosevelt once said that “People don’t care how much you know unless they know how much you care.” I think this is highly applicable to us as doctors. Every doctor will have ‘head knowledge’, but it is ‘heart knowledge’ and emotional intelligence that helps you build an authentic connection with the patients under your care. Another important trait that makes an exceptional doctor is confident humility - having confidence in your own knowledge and skills, yet simultaneously possessing the humility to admit when we may not have all the answers.

How do you think LKCMedicine has prepared you with a good foundation for your residency / post-graduate postings?

TCH: LKCMedicine places a strong emphasis on the empathetic practice of medicine, with a focus on communication skills. The use of team-based learning has also trained me to work well with colleagues in the professional environment. These have provided me with my foundation for my medical practice.

SR: Team-based learning taught us to collaborate, argue and work together effectively.  These skills enabled me to perform as a proficient team member, and this was essential across all of my residency postings.

LKW: I think medical school is a bit like parenting - its job is to inculcate good values, provide a good learning foundation, and provide a secure base in which students can use as a jumping pad. A good foundation sets up everything well, but ultimately how we fare is our own journey to make and our own burden to bear. In that sense I think LKCMedicine has done very well, as the ethical and moral underpinnings of our career have always been emphasised. The content delivery has been excellent, and we have always been taught to question and be curious.

LCH: A team-based approach to patient care is pervasive throughout the practice of medicine. In or out of residency, the ability to communicate and work well with different team members is always an advantageous skill - I credit LKCMedicine with instilling this in me from day one. Beyond knowledge and skills, the residency stage has huge demands in terms of administrative workload, such as, filling out various forms to document our progress and approaching faculty on our own to initiate regular formative assessments. This is something that we did regularly in Year 3-4, which taught us to take charge of our own learning; the transition to my residency was definitely easier having had this experience.

AG: I feel that the LKCMedicine curriculum exposed us to a broad range of speciality postings during our time in medical school, and also gave us many opportunities to explore our professional interests. Beyond ‘head knowledge’, LKCMedicine’s strong values-based curriculum inculcates its students with the right values from day one. Through team-based learning we are taught to work collaboratively from an early stage, which mirrors the team-based working environments in the hospitals. This prepared me well to work with other medical professionals across a wide range of disciplines.

What differentiates LKCMedicine doctors from the rest?

TCH: LKCMedicine doctors are good communicators and collaborators. They are individuals who practice medicine with empathy and humility.

SR: LKCMedicine’s curriculum focuses on good communication skills; we become doctors who listen and address not just the patients’ symptoms, but also their hopes, concerns and fears.

LCH: I do get a sense that LKCMedicine doctors tend to ease into their work duties a little faster than others. They also tend to be very vocal and proactive in taking charge of their patients' care and their own learning. The few juniors I have worked with are always willing to learn and would volunteer to take on additional responsibilities whenever they can, making them both a joy to work with as colleagues, and a privilege to mentor as well.

AG: Being from one of the earlier batches of LKCMedicine graduates, we are defined by our pioneering spirit. We joined the School at a time when it was seen as the ‘new kid on the block’ amongst medical schools, which presented a fresh opportunity for us to build the kind of school culture that we wanted our juniors to inherit. I believe this has translated into the way that we approach problems - we are comfortable with uncertainty, never too reliant on the ‘tried and tested’, and are willing to find innovative approaches to familiar problems.