Malcolm Gladwell Is Wrong, Tell Them That You Love Them

Malcolm Gladwell thinks we should tell people whats it's really like to be a doctor.  And by God I have invested the last seven years in doing just that.  I have written countless blogs, given lectures, and traveled to Ireland.  I have coined the term Caring 2.0 to describe the bidirectional flow of empathy.  Patients will tell us what it is like to suffer with disease, and we will tell them of our own battles.  Forged somewhere in the molten lava of truth and disclosure, a deeper relationship will arise.  We will heal not only with our hands, but with our hearts.  In the process, the oozing festering gash of our painful existence will somehow be allayed. Balderdash.I was wrong.  Years, pages, and a book of poetry later, I have found that my most captive audience is not my patients nor the populace in general, but healthcare professionals.  That's right.  The doctors and nurses are the ones who get the most out of my writing.  It took me nearly a decade to realize that I am preaching to the choir.  It's my fellow PTSD'ers that find release by reading my words. We are wounded soldiers searching not for a pat on the back nor a bow of recognition as much as knowing glance.  To share with other human beings the impossibly difficult situations we face only has resonance for those stuck in similarly claustrophobic corners. Do I want to know all the near misses that occur yearly in our aviation system?  Do I want ...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - Category: Family Physicians Authors: Source Type: blogs