Practice…

Here is a humbling graphic. This comes from an educational update series that I subscribe to as a way to get continuing medical education. This graphic compares the traditional amount of “practice” of a working professional physician, musician, or athlete. How many hours does a physician spend on the “fundamentals” of his or her skills.

Do you practice your practice?

Once a physician is through with training very little time may be spent practicing technical skills, unlike a professional musician or athlete.

A professional basketball player continues to work on fundamental skills between games, staying after practice to work on free throws or working on that spin move to the basket with the non-dominant hand. A musician practices scales or listens to music outside of his or her genre.

As a physician I never practice my knot tying skills or wonder about the strength in my hands as I did when I was a medical student and resident.

I am not exactly sure how much I actually need to do this. Surgeons are not as finely tuned as a professional athlete or musician performing at the highest level, and our performances are a daily rather than every so often. Other than our brief vacations and weekend getaways we don’t have an off-season where we regroup, heal, strengthen, and think about what we need to work on. Still, I do find myself thinking about particular skills and techniques that may be needed during a difficult case or procedure. I wonder if my skills have improved over time. I hope so.

Only perfect practice makes perfect. In medicine we rarely have time for practicing because so much of our time and energy is spent in the actual practice of medcine. Physicians, especially surgeons, should remember that skills erode over time if not trained, rehearsed and relearned.