Doctors need to stop pretending to have all the answers. ‘I don’t know’ does not mean ‘I have nothing to offer’

‘Like many doctors, I used to think I was alone in my feelings of inadequacy; it took me a long time to work out that this is a silent affliction,’ writes Dr Ranjana Srivastava. Photograph: Natali_Mis/Getty Images

I have always thought, and still tell prospective medical students, that the most attractive part of being a doctor is there is something in it for everyone who has a thirst for knowledge.

From the quiet thinker to the gregarious soul, detail-driven to big-picture person, staunch researcher to unabashed clinician, most of us will find a home in medicine, even if, in a sorry postscript, a fraction of doctors will become disillusioned and even leave for reasons that are all too familiar.