Tackling Imposter Syndrome by Embracing Failure

By: Rachel Akers

Failure is something I’ve become intimately acquainted with throughout my career. I’m not alone in this. We can all recall instances in our professional lives where things haven’t gone our way, and we’ve failed to reach the expectations set by our educators, mentors, colleagues, families, or ourselves. Failure can be painful, embarrassing, and even harmful for those in the medical profession, and it’s not easy to talk about with others. 

As students transition to residents and eventually become attending physicians, our understanding of failure changes in tandem with our values. New responsibilities like parenthood, caring for your own aging parents, repaying gargantuan loans, and being directly in charge of patients’ well-being supersede the worries of passing exams or confidently blurting out a wrong answer.

Regardless of the nature of a mistake or the level of training you’re at, failures shouldn’t be seen as something shameful to hide from others. By choosing to view past failures as catalysts for growth and opting to share our failures with others to prevent them from making the same mistakes, we start to tear down one of medicine’s biggest challenges: imposter syndrome.

Many studies (see works cited) have described imposter syndrome (the persistent belief that one’s achievements are fraudulent, and someone will eventually find this out) and its prevalence in medicine. Of note, female physicians and female physicians of color are more likely to report feelings of imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome erodes confidence and establishes toxic institutional culture that is often impossible to fully repair.

To lessen the burden imposter syndrome puts on our physicians, we need to address it from the root. Medical school unfortunately creates an environment of neurotic students striving for perfection. Students fear sharing failure with their classmates and instead choose to broadcast their success. I understand – it’s much easier to share that you recently published or aced an exam instead of sharing that your physical exam skills aren’t where they need to be, or that you’re having trouble expressing empathy to patients. 

When we only hear our classmate’s successes and never their failures, students doubt themselves more and more. An unrealistic expectation is painted and becomes fact in the mind of the student, and no matter how hard they strive towards this expectation, it will never become their reality. The goal post will shift, the mirage will dissipate and reappear miles away, and the student will convince themselves further that their success is due to luck, or a mistake made by the admissions committee, and that their failures can only be attributed to themselves.

One of the solutions to this problem is reflection and openly sharing stories of failure with your peers. This normalizes imperfection, emphasizes that everyone has their own unique paths, and helps others understand that failure is not catastrophic. For those severely affected by imposter syndrome, chronicling instances of positivity and accomplishments beyond what goes on the CV can be helpful. For me, this is a folder in my email inbox titled “nice things people say about me”. If I start feeling that I don’t belong, looking over the emails praising my work helps me navigate difficult feelings. 

It’s hard to give up some of our control and let others perceive us as someone who both succeeds and fails. I hope that sharing a more complete version of my experiences in medicine, with triumphs and failures, can help others feel that they belong, reduce the burden of imposter syndrome, and inspire others to share more complete versions of their stories. 

For me, it’s sharing that I had to retake some pre-med classes – physics and inorganic chemistry, to be specific. Sharing this has gotten significantly easier with time, but at one point, it was a source of major anxiety and imposter syndrome. When discussing research as a medical student with my peers, I make sure to convey that for every abstract, poster presentation, and publication listed on my CV, there are at least two or three unsuccessful projects. It’s similar to test-taking; for every one question that I get right during an exam, there’s a bunch of practice questions that I got wrong. 

This mindset of embracing failure also extends to my peers. I’ve had classmates tell me that they’ve failed a block, or need remedial education on clinical skills. I feel honored that they feel comfortable enough to share this with me and I do my best to maintain a non-judgmental space where they feel seen. Imposter syndrome can be overcome by sharing your own failure or actively listening to others, which helps our community understand that perfection is an unattainable goal.

Works Cited:
Iwai, Yoshiko MS; Yu, Alice Yunzi L MD; Thomas, Samantha M MS; Fayanju, Oluseyi A MD; Sudan, Ranjan MD, FACS; Bynum, Debra L MD, MMEL; Fayanju, Oluwadamilola M MD, MA, MPHS, FACS. Leadership and Impostor Syndrome in Surgery. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 237(4):p 585-595, October 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000000788 
Gold KJ, Kuznia AL, Laurie AR, Williams CB. Gender Differences in Stress and Burnout: Department Survey of Academic Family Physicians. J Gen Intern Med. 2021;36(6):1811-1813. doi:10.1007/s11606-020-06287-y