Building Resilience: How to Bounce Back from Challenges

Failing is often seen as something negative in medical school. We need excellent grades to get in and are expected to pass exams every year to progress. Having to retake assessments often comes with a lot of stigma and stress, so there is a lot of pressure to pass everything the first time. However, failure is a normal part of life, and it is impossible to expect yourself to never fail in anything. Resilience is built from navigating challenges and picking yourself back up when things are hard.

Failing exams

One of the most stressful parts of medical school are the exams. Most medical schools don’t have coursework, so your success is determined by high-pressure exams. Failing these may mean having to retake the exam, repeat the year or even leave the medical school. Therefore, there is a lot of pressure around passing first time and stigma associated with having to repeat exams or the year.

Sometimes people do fail exams and that’s okay. You can still graduate and become a knowledgeable and kind doctor even having failed a medical school exam. Once you are into the next year or have graduated, it is unlikely that anyone will remember or ask you about that specific exam. Lots of doctors I have met have failed an exam at one point and are still very successful doctors. 

Failing in clinical practice

On the wards, it can be very embarrassing when you fail a clinical skill in front of the patient and the ward team. However, it is important to remember that this happens to everyone, and the only way to get better at these skills is to practice them.

On my anaesthetics rotation, I watched a senior consultant anaesthetist fail two cannulas on a patient. This could potentially have been very embarrassing but she stayed calm the entire time and didn’t let it bother her when she tried again. As someone who can feel ashamed when failing clinical skills, I saw this as a great lesson that it’s normal to fail at some point and the important thing is how you cope with the situation. Even having done countless cannulas in her career, this consultant still failed on a typically ‘easy’ cannula but it wasn’t problematic or something to feel bad about. She simply tried again and succeeded.

Failing in other parts of life

Outside of life in Medicine, failing is still a normal part of life. From failing driving tests, to getting rejected from job interviews, nobody can get through life being instantly successful at everything they try. As Albert Einstin said, ‘A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new’. As frustrating as it may be, making mistakes is part of the human experience. Developing resilience is essential to keep your mindset positive and get past challenges.

Examples of people that have failed

Here are some stories of people that have experienced hardship or failure but bounced back and succeeded despite it.

“After failing my fourth year exams, I felt really bad about myself. It really knocked my confidence and added to my imposter syndrome. However, I managed to pass resits and a few months later, finals. In some way, I’m glad that I failed because I was able to improve the gaps in my knowledge and I think this made me stronger for finals.”

Georgie, Final Year Medic

“My health has often meant that I’ve had to take time out or fallen behind on my work and I had always avoided or postponed exams because of this, but when I was in my second year, after a really difficult time, my senior tutor encouraged me to give them a go. This meant going into some exams not having revised at all, which was a terrifying experience having put a lot of my self-worth on my grades in the past.While I did fail one exam, for me it showed me that I can do better than I expect, even in really difficult circumstances, and I count this as a success. It also showed me that failing isn't the end of the world. We sit so many exams over our careers that everyone is bound to fail at least one. Don't let people make you feel that you aren't good enough just because you've failed something, often you’ve succeeded just to sit the exam.”

Amy, Fourth Year Medic

“I failed my end of year exams in third year and at the time it felt like the end of the world. I literally couldn’t think of anything worse than going back to the library over the summer. But since then, my perspective has changed and now it doesn’t seem like a big deal at all. At the end of the day, there’s so many other things that are important to being a good doctor, and passing exams is just a tiny part of that. You have to hype yourself up and be proud of how far you’ve come. There will always be another exam or milestone around the corner so you have to be proud of each success as it comes. Also, it’s okay if you’re really struggling after failing something. ”  

Liv, Final Year Medic

“Since starting the foundation program, I’ve made so many mistakes and failed so many clinical skills, but so has everyone else I know- it’s completely normal. The first day you arrive on the ward, you have no idea where anything is or how things work. You have to believe in yourself and just do your best, knowing that it can never be perfect.”

Abi, Resident Doctor

How to bounce back

The fact that you’ve failed is not important. The important part is how you learn from this and carry on. This is what builds resilience and will allow you to succeed in the long run. Here are a few ideas on how to move on from failure and build resilience.

1.    Allow yourself to feel the disappointment

It’s normal to feel sad or frustrated when you don’t achieve something. While it’s not good to overly dwell on these feelings, it’s also bad to bottle feelings up. Allow yourself to feel the emotion.

2.    Soothe yourself

Everyone has different ways of soothing and looking after themselves. Examples of this may be exercising, journaling or talking to friends. Figure out what works for you and don’t be afraid to try different techniques.

3.    Move on

Arguably the hardest part of bouncing back is letting go of your failure and looking to the future. It’s impossible to change the past and dwelling on it will only hurt the future. Learn what you can from your failure and then let it go.

4.    Small, easy wins

Do small, easy accomplishments that give you a sense of reward. Examples of this are doing household chores, small games (like the Wordle) or cooking a nice dinner. 

5.    Remember past successes

Just getting into medical school is a massive success. The fact that you’re here and you’ve made it this far should be celebrated and make you proud. Some people also find it helpful to keep a note of times when things have gone well, to look back on when times are harder.

6.    Don’t compare yourself

Life is not a competition. Everyone moves at a different pace, with different strategies and timelines that work for them. Figure out your own goals and priorities regardless of what other people are doing.

7.    Focus on the future

This hardship might actually turn out to be a good thing. Although this sentiment can be a bit cringe inducing, there are silver linings to each cloud. However, you will only find this by looking forward and moving on from failures, not dwelling on the past.

Hopefully, this blog has shown how normal failure is, and that the important part is how you pick yourself up afterwards. Remember to be kind and patient with yourself. Resilience is built over time by picking yourself up and learning healthy coping mechanisms. It is not the failing that counts, but rather how you recover from it.