Physicians can choose to nurture their human side
A keynote address to Gold Humanism Honor Society Induction Ceremony, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA.
As an intern, I was assigned to 9 weeks over the year on the bone marrow transplant inpatient unit. It was medically fascinating but emotionally draining and anxiety provoking. I began to get nauseated going to work because I was having such a hard time with the rotation. As I sank deeper into anxiety and self-doubt as patient after patient died or had terrible complications, I met a patient who forever changed my attitude towards humanism in medicine, and I’d like to tell you our story.
Her name was Carol.
She was a 55 year old with metastatic ovarian cancer with a sparkle in her eyes despite being on clinical trial for BMT. I met her several weeks into her “hail mary” experimental treatment and things were not going well. But, Carol was my patient, so I put my head down and plugged away. I was increasingly arriving to work anxious and dreading what each day would bring. I had a hard time girding myself to see her each day.
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Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/gretchen-diemer" rel="tag" > Gretchen Diemer, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
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