I am a physician working at a government health agency, and I have noticed that I get extremely anxious/terrified before media interviews or meetings with executive staff because I’m thinking the thought ‘I’m not going to know something I’m supposed to know’ (meaning something a doctor should know.) If that were to happen, I make it mean that I’ll lose all credibility, people will think I’m stupid and/or will be embarrassed for me. I have all kinds of explanations for why I wouldn’t know what a doctor should know – I didn’t do the right residency, I didn’t see patients after residency and went right into public health, okay two explanations… Here’s my unintentional model:
C: Media request or meeting with the mayor about vaccination
T: I’m not going to know something I should know
F: terrified
A: dread it, can’t focus so I don’t prepare, try to get out of it, beat myself up for feeling terrified
R: I don’t show up with what I do know

I believe that there’s a whole lot that I do know and can even look to evidence of interviews/meetings that went great even if I didn’t exactly know the answer (that’s what media training is for), but I’d like to make peace with not knowing something I ‘should’ know. Or even question the idea that there’s information that I should know or that all doctors should know . My brain really resists that one…