Tatiana Prowell: Each time I get to the final why, I’ve articulated a core value

Tatiana Prowell posted on X/Twitter:

“I’ve seen multiple tweets lately from Med-Student-Twitter and Med-Twitter and Surg-Twitter nervous about interviews, Step exams, presenting on rounds, doing a procedure for the first time. Everyone in medicine has been there. I’d like to share how I think of these moments.

When my mind/body feel tense, I treat it is a signal: this really matters to me. Not ‘I’m going to fail,’ but ‘I care deeply about doing well.’ And then I ask myself why. And I keep asking why about each answer until I get to the root of why I REALLY care. That’s when I learn.

Each time I get to the final why, I’ve articulated a core value:

• People with cancer deserve excellent and constantly improving care.
• Patients joining clinical trials are making a trust fall. Never fail them.
• Many people invested in me. I’m going to make them proud.

I also try to interpret that feeling of tension not as an alarm signal, but as my mind/body getting ready. The same way we might feel at the starting block of a race where we are re-reviewing what we practiced and establishing laser focus. Evolution gave us this for a reason.

Nervousness and performance anxiety will always be with us. If we don’t ask what it tells us or how it can help us be/do better, we miss an important opportunity. If you’ve read this far, it’s probably because you care deeply about something. That’s a gift and I’m proud of you.”

Source: Tatiana Prowell/X

Tatiana M. Prowell is an Associate Professor of Oncology in the Division of Women’s Malignancies at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Breast Cancer Scientific Liaison to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She was the principal architect of FDA’s policy on accelerated approval using pathological complete response as a novel regulatory endpoint in the neoadjuvant high-risk breast cancer setting, and a member of the Biden Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel Cancer Immunology Working Group. A frequent public speaker, she is a three-time recipient of FDA’s Excellence in Communication Award. She is a past Giants of Cancer Care Award finalist, the recipient of the 2019 John and Samuel Bard Medal in Science or Medicine, and the recipient of a 2020 Webby Special Achievement Award for her effective use of social media during the pandemic. A passionate medical educator and mentor, she was Chair of the 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting Education Committee.