[June 1999 journal entry]
In a recent ‘professional formation’ session with a medical student rotating with our Appalachia community health center for a month, I suggested that he think of and define ‘dedication’ in terms of living near/on the edge of cynicism and burnout in that to be dedicated is to fully, intentionally, and authentically invest one’s self to the point of vulnerability. In a subsequent discussion, I introduced the need for an ‘encompassing approach to spirituality’. He mentioned an internal medicine physician friend of his whom he described “deeply Pentecostal”. I asked the student if, within such a fundamentalist and single-factor theological thought world, medical intervention must be viewed as fighting/resisting ‘God’. In response, he referenced guidance he had received from a physician who sponsors a Christian Medical and Dental Society chapter (an organization decidedly toward the fundamentalist/evangelical end of the theological spectrum in the ‘religious’ sphere) – i.e., “Steer clear of such questions”. I suggested to the student that to do so compartmentalizes life and separates spirituality from professional life. I later asked the student -- after he said he does not think anything happens randomly -- how he integrates that view with the statistical reasoning so foundational for modern medicine. I noted that randomness is at the heart of statistics. He indicated he had not previously thought about this point.
In a recent ‘professional formation’ session with a medical student rotating with our Appalachia community health center for a month, I suggested that he think of and define ‘dedication’ in terms of living near/on the edge of cynicism and burnout in that to be dedicated is to fully, intentionally, and authentically invest one’s self to the point of vulnerability. In a subsequent discussion, I introduced the need for an ‘encompassing approach to spirituality’. He mentioned an internal medicine physician friend of his whom he described “deeply Pentecostal”. I asked the student if, within such a fundamentalist and single-factor theological thought world, medical intervention must be viewed as fighting/resisting ‘God’. In response, he referenced guidance he had received from a physician who sponsors a Christian Medical and Dental Society chapter (an organization decidedly toward the fundamentalist/evangelical end of the theological spectrum in the ‘religious’ sphere) – i.e., “Steer clear of such questions”. I suggested to the student that to do so compartmentalizes life and separates spirituality from professional life. I later asked the student -- after he said he does not think anything happens randomly -- how he integrates that view with the statistical reasoning so foundational for modern medicine. I noted that randomness is at the heart of statistics. He indicated he had not previously thought about this point.