For discussion:
- Have you experienced this exasperation – “Look where caring got me”? What is the link between caring deeply and becoming jaded/cynical?
- Indications that someone or something is highly valued include (1) the value being clearly explained, (2) the value is consistently assigned, (3) the value seriously influences decisions and actions, (4) the value is encouraged (e.g., incentives), (5) the value is honored. By such criteria, who/what does your residency program value? By such criteria, who/what do you value?
- What relationships do you have and what experiences do you have that refresh and encourage your goal of being a humane physician with a strong social conscience?
- Have you felt disillusioned about medicine and be(com)ing a physician?
- How fluent are you in the language of respect, compassion, and fairness? How often, in your medical practice, do you think/speak in this language? when compared with clinical language? when compared with legal language? when compared with economic language?
- Why stop short of being ‘wedded to medicine’?
- How can difficult patients be sifted out of one’s panel of patients?
- Why would a physician’s spouse and child(ren) think s/he cares more for his/her patients than for them?
- What conclusions about your professional character would result from assessing how you handle your most difficult patients?
- What can be done to make the medical education, training, and practice environments more supportive of physicians resolved to care deeply, to be truly present with patients, to concentrate on the disadvantaged, to be reflective?
