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Professional practice

Healthcare practice

How listening, uncertainty, error, systems, boundaries, and human contact shape good care.

12 questions, 186 answers on the record, from 152 members. Every question is asked in FLAPSS wording — nobody answers as anybody else.

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Worth reading

What makes you want to keep learning?

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

Developmental biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1995

I think a very big curiosity. I’m very curious and I like to understand things and not only science but also other things where I just try to find out why things work or how things work.

Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2003

John Lewis

U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966

I wanted to know. I asked a lot of questions and she would say, "Read, read."…So she inspired me a great deal.

Recorded · Explorations in Black Leadership, University of Virginia

Shinya Yamanaka

Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012

I got very interested in so-called “knockout mouse” technology. Knockout mouse is a way to study the function of genes. You know, both human and mouse have approximately 20,000 genes.

Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2008

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Every question in this questionnaire

  1. What do patients tell you when they feel heard that they do not tell you otherwise? —
  2. How do you communicate uncertainty without abandoning either honesty or reassurance? —
  3. What are you best at that nobody watching would notice? 26
  4. What should a health professional do after recognising that their judgment or care was wrong? —
  5. When did you last change your mind about something important? 28
  6. Which part of the care system most often prevents good professionals from doing good work? —
  7. What is the biggest professional obstacle you have faced? 24
  8. How has a setback or failure set you up for later success? 69
  9. How do you remain compassionate without carrying every patient's suffering home? —
  10. What makes you want to keep learning? 9
  11. What are you unwilling to optimise? 30
  12. What have patients taught you about living that professional training could not? —

Who has answered

Members with enough answers in this questionnaire to be worth arriving at — listed A–Z, not ranked by count.

  • Barack Obama

    44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008

    2 answers United States b. 1961

  • Bill Clinton

    42nd President of the United States, 1993–2001

    2 answers United States b. 1946

  • Charlie Munger

    Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 1978–2023

    2 answers United States b. 1924

  • Chris Hoy

    British track cyclist, 1994–2013

    2 answers United Kingdom b. 1976

  • David Vélez

    Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank

    3 answers Colombia

  • DS
    Derek Sivers

    Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want

    2 answers United States

  • Desmond Tutu

    Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984

    2 answers South Africa 1931–2021

  • Edmund Hillary

    Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953

    3 answers New Zealand 1919–2008

  • Jensen Huang

    Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA

    2 answers United States b. 1963

  • John Lewis

    U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966

    3 answers United States 1940–2020

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