Letter to the Editor
Submitted: June 03, 2025
Revised: December 16, 2025
Accepted: December 18, 2025
Athletes in White Coats: The Double-Edged Sword of Competitive Mindsets
Haleema Sadia1, Abdul Muhaimen2
Corresponding Author
Haleema Sadia1
Email: [email protected]
Affiliations:
Bahria University Medical and Dental College (BUMDC), Karachi1,2
2nd Year MBBS Student1
4th Year MBBS Student2
Dear Editor,
The cognitive, emotional, and psychological demands of medical training extend well beyond the formal curriculum and often require competencies developed outside conventional academic environments. Competitive athletics represents one such domain, offering psychological conditioning that may appear distant from medical education. However, both athletics and medicine share notable similarities in the pressures they place on decision making, performance under stress, and emotional regulation. Whether these shared attributes facilitate or hinder the professional development of medical students warrants thoughtful consideration.
Both athletes and medical trainees frequently operate in high pressure environments characterized by outcome-oriented thinking. In competitive sports, performance is often framed in terms of success or failure, while in medicine clinical decisions may be perceived as having life altering consequences. This dichotomous framing may be reinforced during undergraduate medical education, where an emphasis on error avoidance and high stakes responsibility can foster fear-based learning. Although intended to promote vigilance, such an approach may inadvertently undermine confidence, adaptability, and reflective practice, which are core competencies essential for effective clinical care.
Elite athletes are systematically trained in psychological strategies such as stress regulation, mental rehearsal, and resilience building to sustain performance under pressure. Incorporating similar evidence based psychological skills training into medical education may help students manage academic stress and clinical responsibilities more effectively. Studies among Pakistani medical students have demonstrated high prevalence of stress, psychological distress, and varied coping strategies. For example, a recent multi-center descriptive study reported common causes of academic stress such as disturbed study-life balance, demanding curriculum, and worrying about the future, with coping mechanisms including engagement in leisure and faith-based activities1. A cross-sectional study of medical students in Lahore reported substantial psychological morbidity and distress related to academic concerns, highlighting the need for enhanced support systems2. Another study found a high prevalence of stress (59%) among medical students, with both active and passive coping strategies employed to manage perceived stress3. Further, elevated stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were associated with maladaptive coping behaviors among Pakistani medical students, underscoring the complexity of the stress-coping relationship in this population4. Collectively, these findings underscore the need for structured interventions aimed at promoting psychological resilience within medical training programs.
A key distinction between athletics and medical education lies in the approach to teamwork. In sports, collective performance is emphasized and success or failure is shared among team members. Athletes are trained to rely on coordinated decision making, mutual support, and shared accountability. In contrast, medical education often prioritizes individual achievement through competitive assessment systems, merit rankings, and academic distinctions. This individualistic culture may limit opportunities for collaborative learning and peer support, potentially contributing to isolation and emotional fatigue among medical students.
Adopting a more team based and collaborative framework within medical education, similar to that employed in competitive sports, may enhance clinical decision making, reduce stress, and foster a stronger sense of professional community. Such an approach could support not only academic performance but also the mental wellbeing of future physicians, ultimately benefiting patient care.
We believe that integrating structured resilience training and collaborative learning models into undergraduate medical curricula deserves greater attention and discussion within the medical education community.
Authors' Contributions: All authors took part in this study to an equal extent. Sadia H: Study design, literature search, and manuscript writing. Muhaimen A: Study conception, idea development, and manuscript writing.
REFERENCE:
How to cite: Sadia H, Muhaiman A. Athletes in White Coats: The Double-Edged Sword of Competitive Mindsets. Pak J Med Dent Sci. 2025;2(2):42-43.