Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: compassion

  • Between frames: Liminality and the emergence of self

    Jane PersonsIowa City, Iowa, United States The development of compassion, along with wisdom, skill, and communication, is pivotally important to the practice of medicine.1 Perhaps even more importantly, development of personal character – such as through a medical education that emphasizes ethics, professionalism, and the humanities – is critical to the emergence of effective and…

  • Retirement reflections: from code to compassion with Chloe

    Gregory RuteckiCleveland, Ohio, United States William May and Samuel Shem have described inadequacies of doctor-patient relationships that are characterized as code models.1,2 May observed that these medical codes binding patients and their physicians together shape relationships similar to habits or rules, are aesthetic, and value style over compassion. Shem wrote The House of God when these…

  • Death and new-doctor eyes

    Katrina GenuisVancouver, Canada With slim cuts to her wrists, she came into the emergency room and said she wanted to die. “This is clearly a cry for attention,” others said. “Send the new doctor to stitch her up.” I sat by her bed with a 30-gauge lidocaine-filled needle and 4.0 nylon sutures, and began unravelling…

  • Imagine

    Daniel Becker Charlottesville, Virginia, United States Up in the intensive care unit an elderly man with a subdural hematoma is dying. His wife has been at his side all night. They are from out of town and were on vacation when he slipped and fell on the sidewalk. The intern has also been up all night.…

  • Where doctors cannot reach: Tales from a British High Street

    Suchita ShahOxford, United Kingdom Spring “I wonder if it’s contagious?” In a tiny shop on a middling-sized street in my city, a handful of women and I were immersed in a springtime ritual of beautification and small talk: haircutting. One woman seemed somewhat precious about it. The type, I thought unsympathetically, who would present to…

  • Cultivating clinical compassion with cultural encounters

    Jeffrey LeePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States The calm waves of the Mediterranean played a lullaby as I walked along the beach, the fine-grained sand gently caressing my toes. I noticed a small group of women massaging each other’s backs. I awkwardly watched them from the corner of my eye and wondered what was going on. Every…

  • Compassion and the art of medicine

    Michael VassalloBournemouth, United Kingdom Is medicine an art or a science? As a medical student embarking on a journey, the answer seemed obvious. I was one of a unanimous chorus of students confidently claiming science as the answer to this trick question. My mum, however, told me “to be kind and smile, appearing serious or…

  • Humanism in medicine

    Annie YehLouisiana, New Orleans, USA As medical students, we are taught the “art of medicine” and the importance of gathering a thorough patient history. “Ninety percent of your diagnosis comes from the history,” we are told. And to do so, we must establish a rapport with our patients. We enter the lives of patients at…

  • Suffering and empathy in the stories of Anton Chekhov and their relevance to healthcare today

    Peter McCannLondon Throughout his life, Anton Chekhov was often faced with the reality of suffering in human existence. His family’s bankruptcy and life of poverty in Moscow influenced young Anton’s thoughts about suffering and degradation in society, and his brief period of medical practice in Moscow provided him with enough experience to write over 150…

  • Two Scottish tales of medical compassion

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States Dr. John Raffensberger has served both a literary and humanistic cause by placing in our hands two stories that highlight the most admired traits in a physician, the traits of empathy and understanding that patients and their families require. This slim but handsome volume brings together two Scottish tales…