- One study even called the care delivered to many vulnerable patients “inhumane.” Seismic changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly the shift to telehealth – only exacerbated that feeling.
- In response, many health systems now emphasize “relational medicine”: care that purports to center on the patient as a human being.
- Seeing each person before you as someone of infinite value is fundamental to many faiths’ beliefs about medical ethics.
Divine dignity
- For doctors today, this might mean taking care not to inflict shame on a person with a stigmatized illness like substance use or obesity.
- A 1981 Islamic code of medical ethics, for instance, considers the patient the leader of the medical team.
- The doctor exists “for the sake of the patient … not the other way round,” it reminds practitioners.
Seeing and hearing the whole patient
In undergraduate classes that I teach for future health professionals at the University of Pittsburgh, we focus on communication skills to foster dignified care, such as setting a shared agenda with a patient to align their goals and the provider’s. Students also read “Compassionomics,” by medical researchers Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli, which aggregates the data showing caring’s impact on the well-being of patients and providers alike.
- However, even health professionals steeped in these practices can encounter people whose humanity they struggle to see.
- The course evaluation is based on a project in which students interview a friend, relative or neighbor about their experience of illness and care.
- Ultimately, they identify one element of the person’s care that could have been improved by attending more to the person’s individual needs and listening to their story.
Listening with both ears
- Down the road at Chatham University, I work with physician assistant students who are about to enter clinic for the first time.
- These students complete a workshop including many of the same communication exercises, including “listening with both ears”: listening not only to the patient, but also to what they themselves say to the patient, considering how it will be received.
- Many of them report using patient-centered skills in challenging situations, such as validating patients’ concerns that had previously been dismissed.
- Yet they also report a work culture where effective communication is often seen as taking too much time or as a low priority.
- The emphasis on technology and a rapid pace of treatment leaves scant room for caring, whether in Heschel’s day or ours.
Jonathan Weinkle is affiliated with American College of Physicians and American Academy of Pediatrics.
