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When doctors become patients, the experience forces us to better our ability to practice the art of medicine because we gain more empathy and are able to relate to our patients’ feelings on a different level.
It’s one thing to read about the conditions we treat, and quite another when we are the ones lying flat on our backs looking up at the faces of complete strangers whom we are expected to trust for compassionate, competent, and sometimes life-altering care.
One of my first brushes with walking in my patients’ shoes was undergoing an MRI. Patients’ concerns that I had considered irrational and unfounded became understandable as I lay in the machine, unable to see anything but the inside of a tube or to move more than a few inches in any direction. All I could hear was the incessant, loud clicking of the machine as it took image after image. Alone with my thoughts, and the uncertainty of the test results, I could truly empathize with my patients’ anxieties about the procedure.
If you have never personally experienced a significant illness, I strongly recommend watching a movie called “The Doctor.” Early in my career, I remember watching this movie and it had a profound impact, the next best thing to getting sick myself, so to speak. The main character, played by William Hurt, is a brilliant, albeit insensitive doctor who is diagnosed with cancer and forced to deal in his most vulnerable state with the frustration of an inefficient medical system. Perhaps most intriguing, he is confronted head on with his own mortality and must seemingly place his trust in the hands of another brilliant and cold clinician. The result is a moving storyline; if you have never been seriously ill, this movie might just forever change your practice style.
Dr. Hester is a hospitalist at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. She is the creator of the Patient Whiz, a patient-engagement app for iOS. Reach her at healthsavvy@aol.com.
When doctors become patients, the experience forces us to better our ability to practice the art of medicine because we gain more empathy and are able to relate to our patients’ feelings on a different level.
It’s one thing to read about the conditions we treat, and quite another when we are the ones lying flat on our backs looking up at the faces of complete strangers whom we are expected to trust for compassionate, competent, and sometimes life-altering care.
One of my first brushes with walking in my patients’ shoes was undergoing an MRI. Patients’ concerns that I had considered irrational and unfounded became understandable as I lay in the machine, unable to see anything but the inside of a tube or to move more than a few inches in any direction. All I could hear was the incessant, loud clicking of the machine as it took image after image. Alone with my thoughts, and the uncertainty of the test results, I could truly empathize with my patients’ anxieties about the procedure.
If you have never personally experienced a significant illness, I strongly recommend watching a movie called “The Doctor.” Early in my career, I remember watching this movie and it had a profound impact, the next best thing to getting sick myself, so to speak. The main character, played by William Hurt, is a brilliant, albeit insensitive doctor who is diagnosed with cancer and forced to deal in his most vulnerable state with the frustration of an inefficient medical system. Perhaps most intriguing, he is confronted head on with his own mortality and must seemingly place his trust in the hands of another brilliant and cold clinician. The result is a moving storyline; if you have never been seriously ill, this movie might just forever change your practice style.
Dr. Hester is a hospitalist at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. She is the creator of the Patient Whiz, a patient-engagement app for iOS. Reach her at healthsavvy@aol.com.
When doctors become patients, the experience forces us to better our ability to practice the art of medicine because we gain more empathy and are able to relate to our patients’ feelings on a different level.
It’s one thing to read about the conditions we treat, and quite another when we are the ones lying flat on our backs looking up at the faces of complete strangers whom we are expected to trust for compassionate, competent, and sometimes life-altering care.
One of my first brushes with walking in my patients’ shoes was undergoing an MRI. Patients’ concerns that I had considered irrational and unfounded became understandable as I lay in the machine, unable to see anything but the inside of a tube or to move more than a few inches in any direction. All I could hear was the incessant, loud clicking of the machine as it took image after image. Alone with my thoughts, and the uncertainty of the test results, I could truly empathize with my patients’ anxieties about the procedure.
If you have never personally experienced a significant illness, I strongly recommend watching a movie called “The Doctor.” Early in my career, I remember watching this movie and it had a profound impact, the next best thing to getting sick myself, so to speak. The main character, played by William Hurt, is a brilliant, albeit insensitive doctor who is diagnosed with cancer and forced to deal in his most vulnerable state with the frustration of an inefficient medical system. Perhaps most intriguing, he is confronted head on with his own mortality and must seemingly place his trust in the hands of another brilliant and cold clinician. The result is a moving storyline; if you have never been seriously ill, this movie might just forever change your practice style.
Dr. Hester is a hospitalist at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. She is the creator of the Patient Whiz, a patient-engagement app for iOS. Reach her at healthsavvy@aol.com.
