On one occasion, I overheard a patient talking about their experience with a new medical office.
“They were so kind. I didn’t feel bad for having so many needs.”
I didn’t feel bad.
The Art of Being Here by Kirilee West Spring 2022 Intima
Such a simple statement, but I kept thinking about it for weeks. The thought of a helping profession with a central tenet of benevolence but capable of making a person “feel bad” simply for having several needs—it unsettled me and at the same time provided a moment to reflect on the culture of healthcare. How does the healthcare system make patients feel “bad”? Is it maybe when they are still talking and we already have our hand on the door, ready to head out to the next patient? Is it maybe when we fail to show cultural humility? Is it the way the healthcare environment, even more so during the COVID pandemic, has been plagued by greater rates of burnout?
Sometimes in the day-to-day rush of clinical care, we forget to look at patients as people with worlds inside of them, people with families, and as people who are part of the same communities we live in. Or rather than forget, time does not allow it. Is 10 to 15 minutes per patient really enough to treat a person as a whole? We develop a rhythm and then move on to the next patient. But every now and then, we get that one patient that reminds us of the humanity of medicine and whose narrative hits closer to home than you expected. We are reminded to see them as people in the context of the community we share, not just in the context of the clinical picture.
In her Field Note essay titled “Close” (Intima, Spring 2022), Alexandra DeFelice reflects on an interaction with a patient with whom she feels a personal connection and who reminds her about the brevity of life. She mentions how she took a few moments to really listen to the patient, and later the patient reports that she helped “just by being there.” One of the aspects that makes her piece unique is that it shows how, even though as healthcare professionals who are there to assess, evaluate, and treat efficiently, it is also the patients that teach us how to be better and make us stronger.
Catalina Flores, RN is passionate about refugee health and expanding forensic nursing services in underserved communities. She also enjoys psychology, music, running and volunteering at the local shelters.