Being a first-generation physician is no joke, right? That feeling of being the odd one out hits hard sometimes. Both sides of the family? No doctors. Graduating from an overseas med school? Check. Now back home, where I don’t know a ton of people in the field, and pursuing residency in a place where I didn’t even grow up as a national. Talk about feeling like an outsider!
And let’s not forget about trying to move abroad for an even tougher residency program. It’s like stacking challenges on challenges, right? Sometimes I’m in rounds, and all I can think is, “Am I actually good at this, or did I just memorize that thing I read yesterday?”
Imposter syndrome? Oh, it’s alive and well. I’m constantly asking myself if I actually know my stuff or if I’m just winging it and hoping no one notices. It’s wild how often that little voice pops up, making me feel like I need to do more just to prove I belong. I used to wonder if this “odd one out” feeling was just a "me" thing. It wasn’t easy to figure out either—how do you even tell Google how you feel when it throws a long list of irrelevant diagnoses at you? One day, I asked a friend if she ever feels this way, and that’s when I first heard about Imposter Syndrome. I looked it up, and next thing I knew, I was knee-deep in articles, trying to learn how to deal with it.Turns out, Imposter Syndrome isn’t just my struggle. In fact, it’s pretty common in the medical field. Studies show that around 20-30% of physicians experience feelings of imposterism at some point in their careers. That's almost 1 in 3 doctors questioning if they truly belong or are good enough, even after years of hard work and training. It’s reassuring to know I’m not alone in this, but also wild to think how many of us silently carry this burden.
The more I read, the more I realized that recognizing it is the first step toward managing it. It’s a challenge to balance this feeling with the already difficult world of residency, but I’ve learned to be kinder to myself, and I’m working on embracing the fact that we all deserve to be here. It's not about proving that we belong—it's about accepting that we do.But hey, the fact that we’re questioning it means we care, right? The trick is reminding ourselves that we got here for a reason. Let’s just keep pushing, one patient, one round, one day at a time. You’re not an imposter—you’re a rockstar. Keep going!
Reference
· LaDonna, K. A., Ginsburg, S., & Watling, C. (2018). "Rising to the Level of Your Incompetence: What Physicians’ Self-Assessment of Their Performance Reveals About the Imposter Syndrome in Medicine." Academic Medicine, 93(5), 763–768. DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002046
· Villwock, J. A., & Sobin, L. B. (2016). "Imposter syndrome and burnout among American medical students: a pilot study." International Journal of Medical Education, 7, 364-369. DOI: 10.5116/ijme.5801.eac4
· Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., & Keefer, A. L. et al. (2020). "Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of imposter syndrome: a systematic review." Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(4), 1252–1275. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-019-05364-1 Assessed and Endorsed by the MedReport Medical Review Board