DDS Perspective: Deborah D. Proctor, MD

Excerpt

“Just do the best you can.” These words would often ring in my ears and bring me back to my first medical missionary trip to El Progreso, Honduras in 2005. That spur-of-the-moment trip would change my life. I had agreed to come to Progreso as the physician in charge of 25 medical personnel who would in aggregate, evaluate, and manage over 1,100 patients in five days with two dentists whom I had met through a mutual friend. [1, 2] It was hot — the sun gave new meaning to the word “heavy” — and buggy, and I knew only two words in Spanish. After our group had spent all day setting up our clinic and the realization of what I was going to do over the next week had settled in, I more or less panicked. I went to my dental friend who was the leader of our group and told her that I did not think that I could do what was needed. This was when I heard these words for the first time, “Just do the best you can.” When I thought about what they meant, I realized I could do that. I might not do as good of a job as someone else would, but I could do the best that I could do. Over the subsequent 16 years, I have heard many iterations of this phrase: “Just show up”; “All you need is a seat at the table”; “Just do it”; “Lean in”; and others. They all basically mean the same thing: All anyone can ask is to do your best in any given situation. …