We Don't Talk About Failure: Normalizing Failure to Promote Career Advancement in Medicine

Course Overview

Medicine is a profession with no shortage of high achievers. Success is an expectation and a goal in so much of what we do. From the moment we apply to medical school, our careers are full of further applications (residency, fellowship, work), with a focus on career advancement, including academic promotions and leadership positions. We celebrate and embrace success, and rightly so.
On the other hand, and while statistically more common than success, failure is seldom discussed with trainees and colleagues. This lack of dialogue around failure promotes an illusion that physician career trajectories are defined by a linear path of success.
In this highly interactive webinar, we focus on reframing "failure" as a constructive tool to help navigate a career in medicine. Our webinar will center on how to build a "Failure Curriculum Vitae (CV)". Through crafting a Failure CV participants will explore how acknowledging "failures" can paradoxically serve as an opportunity for our own career growth and set the stage for an increased sense of belonging in medicine. We will structure the session beginning with a reflection on failure more broadly in academic medicine, followed by an introduction to a Failure CV template. Participants will utilize this template in facilitated small group sessions during which they will practice building a Failure CV and reflect. Finally, we will review how a Failure CV can be adapted to accommodate the needs of a specific teaching program or institution.

Speakers

• Devorah Edelman, MD
• Tamara Goldberg, MD, FACP
• Andrew Young, DO
• Eric Yudelvich, MD