This book is about how to make the day-to-day practice of medicine reflect that sacredness, even when internal and external forces drag doctors and patients away from the trusting relationship between two human beings and into the mundane, or even the profane. It is about how to ensure that the fundamental building block of that relationship, the face-to-face encounter between one who seeks healing and one who heals, benefits from open, honest communication, mutual respect, and shared purpose, even when systemic problems push them into adversarial positions.
Here then is a collection stories from 10 years of experience in a Federally Qualified Health Center whose only mission is to provide this kind of care and do so at the highest possible level of quality, for a group of patients as diverse and varied—and fascinating—as humanity itself.
Chapter 1: Pedestal....................................................................................................................11
Chapter 2: Hearing, Listening, Attending.......................................................................................27
Chapter 3: I Had to Ask...............................................................................................................41
Chapter 4: Weighty Words...........................................................................................................63
Chapter 5: Words Unspoken.........................................................................................................85
Chapter 6: In This Together..........................................................................................................95
Chapter 7: Strangers..................................................................................................................113
Chapter 8: Losing the Human Image.............................................................................................135
Chapter 9: No Time to Waste.......................................................................................................155
Chapter 10: Building a Sacred Profession.......................................................................................179
