HANDLING FAILURE !!

HANDLING FAILURE ( IN MEDICAL SCHOOL)

Failure!!! I think about that word and i wonder, what is failure? What is the yadstick for its measurement? Sometimes failure can be a relative term because what might mean failure to one person might be good ground to another. But every organization has its definition for failure and so do medical schools. In medical school, it is anything below the 50mark.
There's really nothing new under the sun, people have failed before, people are failing now and people would still fail in the future, thats just the order of things, its like when Jesus said "you'd always have the poor among you" it wasn't a curse, it was a statement of truth. But does anyone desire to fail? well I dont think any rational person does, do you? So that establishes failure as an undesirable event. Let me tell my story..

In pre-clinical school I was doing pretty well I passed all my incourses except one (neurophysiology) and most of my scores were above 60. Then we moved over to the clinical wing and it was like my brain became frozen, i got scores as low as 27, yes 27!
You know, the clinical school has a way of clearing your doubt just in case you thought you were too good before. My doubts were 'over-cleared', I fasted, I prayed and I was upset, mostly upset with myself though because I felt so confused and I couldn't place my finger on what was wrong. Everyone had his or her own idea of what I could do differently, but none seemed to work.

I think handling failure in medical school depends on how you handle failure in life generally. I always like to look at my life as a small piece in this masterpiece that God is building, and every experience is like a tool that he uses to shape me into the form he desires. The day thay 27-score result was released i said to my friend, "I cant be sad over a paper result I my life again" why? Because ruminating over the score won't change it and secondly and most importantly because I know my life is so much more than medical school, I have so much potential in me and I'm too busy discovering, building and using them to be pulled down by a series of bad results. We must understand and see the big picture that our lives are so much more than here and now. Picture this, if while you are at the notice board, looking at that result, the trumpet of God should sound and the world as we know it comes to an end, would that result still matter to you? Remember, life is too short to waste it on being sad over something that in a few years would just be a story. So that is exactly what you shouldn't do when you fail, don't sulk, don't cry (except you are crying out your heart to God, because any other form of pity-tears would only soak your shirt and do nothing more). There's the saying that when life throws you a lemon, make lemonade, you can still make something good out of that failure, find it. Find a way to make it into positive, use your story to encourage someone else, let the Joy people see in you despite what you are going through be an encouragement to others.
Let me just say this, it so much easier to do these things when you have Jesus, because even in the midst of the night, you are just sure that his light would rescue you. So while you wait for his rescue, rejoice in his love.

You must have heard of people who got all the best grades in school and are yet to make something good with their certificates and others that just struggled through are doing amazing things now. It's not a clichè, its actually hapening. There's one thing we must know, there are lessons to be learnt in the midst of failure, for me, it made me stronger. If i should ever fail at anything again i think my heart would take it well. It also taught me humility, you know that scripture "its not unto him that willeth or he that runneth but it is the lord that shows mercy"? I learnt that practically, i learnt dependence on God no matter how much I think I know. I was truly humbled. Finally it taught me to understand myself. Every person has their own 'modus operandi' this is so so so (raise to power infinity) important in medical school, alot of people would come with their advice and they all mean well, but you need to discover what works best for you and stick to it. In my case, I realized that I'm a slow reader because i like to read many materials on a topic before moving on, I also realized that i rarely take note of small details, once I can understand a topic wholly, I'm good to go, i hate to cram tiny details. But in clinicals I couldn't get by with these because time is often very limited and little details are very important, but i didn't know this in time so I carried over my old pattern from the pre-clinic wing and you know the result of that. Now I'm reprogramming myself and getting help from friends who are strong in areas that I am weak.

So as not to prolong this further let me summarise, in handling failure in medical school there's no time for a pity party, you need to learn the lessons therein, discover your mistakes and make the needed adjustments and while doing this, continually trust God for wisdom. Remember, the downfall of a man isn't the end of his life. You are so much more than your result sheet and you can still excel in the exams to come and life in general

- Olanubi Folasade ( A 500 level medical student)