The Myth of Physician Invulnerability

This essay explores how dominant narratives in medical training-especially those centered on resilience and grit-can isolate students with mental health conditions and discourage early intervention. Reflecting on her experience with PTSD during clinical year, the author critiques how medicine subtly equates invulnerability with strength. This leaves little room for students to acknowledge struggle without fear of judgment and limits the profession's ability to care for its own. She calls for trauma-informed education and urges the field to both teach and model a counternarrative that defines strength broadly, embracing vulnerability as intrinsic to the experience of being a human.