In my third month working as a doctor, I made a mistake. I removed a catheter from a patient when I shouldn’t have. It happened because of a simple miscalculation (math strikes again).
I remember staring at my notes, mortified as the realization hit me.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! I panicked.
I looked at the patient, who was peacefully sleeping—oblivious to what I thought was a catastrophic mistake.
Oh no, oh no, oh no!!!
It’s over, I thought. Three months in, and I’ve already ruined everything.
That’s going to happen to you. At some point, you’re going to stumble. You’ll get a dose wrong, make an incorrect diagnosis, or forget to take a sample.
I wish I could tell you that you’ll be perfect—but that would be a lie. You’re human. Mistakes will happen.
What matters is how you respond to them. Let’s talk about that.
Why Mistakes Happen in Medicine
First, it’s important to recognize why errors happen. Medicine is complex. Decisions have to be made quickly, often (very often in some settings) with incomplete information. Sometimes, things simply don’t go as planned.
Mistakes happen for a few key reasons: human factors, system factors, and the simple fact that life can be unpredictable.
Doctors are human. Humans get tired. Humans feel stressed and experience cognitive overload that can impair cloud judgment.
System-level problems include understaffing, inefficient workflows, or clunky electronic records—these create the perfect setup for mistakes. And finally, even when you do everything right, patients can still have unexpected reactions.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a landmark report called To Err Is Human. It marked a turning point in how medical errors were viewed.
It estimated that up to 98,000 deaths occurred annually in U.S. hospitals due to preventable medical errors. The report emphasized that errors were not simply the fault of individual healthcare providers but were often the result of flawed systems.
This shifted the focus from blaming individuals to improving processes, fostering a culture of transparency, and implementing safeguards such as checklists, better reporting mechanisms, and teamwork training.
The first step in fixing medical mistakes is often fixing bad systems.
The Emotional Toll of Mistakes
I remember a night duty about 4 years ago. I was exhausted, juggling multiple tasks at once and trying to quickly write a prescription.
I got it wrong, ripped up the wrong prescription, wrote another—and got it wrong again. The third time this happened, frustration boiled over. I ripped up the prescription, muttered, “Why am I dumb?” and stood there for a while, tired, defeated by a prescription.
Looking back, that reaction was wrong. I wasn’t dumb—I was tired, overwhelmed, and human. But at that moment, all I could feel was self-doubt creeping in, telling me I wasn’t good enough.
Making a mistake in medicine feels different from making mistakes in other fields because the stakes are so high. Even small errors can have big consequences, and when something goes wrong, it’s easy to be consumed by guilt. How could I let that happen? What if I had just double-checked one more time? The questions swirl in your head long after the shift ends.
Over time, if left unchecked, this self-doubt can eat away at your confidence. Instead of learning from mistakes, you start fearing them. You hesitate, second-guess yourself, and lose the decisiveness that makes a good doctor.
On top of the guilt, there’s the fear of what others will think. Medicine is full of brilliant, capable people, and it’s easy to feel like everyone else has it together while you’re struggling.
The fear of looking incompetent can make it hard to admit when you’ve made a mistake, even though honesty is what ultimately makes the system safer.
Every doctor, no matter how experienced, has made mistakes. The ones who grow from them are the ones who acknowledge them, reflect on them, and keep moving forward. Mistakes are painful, but they don’t define your worth as a doctor. How you respond to them does.
How to Respond When You Make a Mistake
Mistakes are opportunities to grow. The worst thing you can do after a mistake is to pretend it didn’t happen. Ignoring or covering up an error not only puts patients at risk but also prevents you from improving.
Owning up to a mistake—whether it’s to your team, a supervisor, or even the patient—may feel terrifying, but honesty is always the better path. Transparency builds trust, and more often than not, your colleagues will respect you for taking responsibility.
Senior colleagues, mentors, and even peers have all been in your shoes at some point. Seeking advice doesn’t make you weak; it shows maturity and a willingness to learn.
Sometimes, an outside perspective can help you see the bigger picture—whether it was a system issue, a communication breakdown, or just an honest human error.
Instead of fixating on the mistake itself, ask why it happened. Were you rushing? Were you fatigued? Was there a flaw in the system that set you up for failure?
Identifying the root cause helps prevent the same mistake from happening again. Maybe you need to slow down, double-check high-risk tasks, or improve your communication with the team. Reflection turns a painful experience into a valuable lesson.
The Best Doctors Keep Learning
Medicine is a lifelong journey of learning, and mistakes are an inevitable part of that process. No doctor—no matter how experienced—is immune to errors.
What sets great doctors apart isn’t the ability to avoid mistakes entirely but how they respond to them. Every mistake teaches you something valuable. The wrong dose today makes you double-check tomorrow. The missed diagnosis pushes you to be more thorough in your next assessment. The difficult patient encounter strengthens your communication skills.
Over time, these moments shape you into a more competent, thoughtful, and resilient physician.
The key is to keep moving forward. Seek guidance, reflect on your missteps, and remember—you are not alone. Every senior doctor you admire has been where you are now. Growth comes from learning, adapting, and persevering.
So, the next time you catch yourself dwelling on a mistake, take a breath and remind yourself: This is part of the process. I’m learning. I’m improving. And I will be a better doctor because of it.
Oh, and my patient ended up okay. Once I realized I had taken out the catheter too early, I told a senior colleague. To my surprise, instead of reacting with anger or frustration, she calmly reassured me.
In the end, the patient was completely fine—there were no complications, and the mistake didn’t cause harm.
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