A conversation at a recent social gathering turned to the viability in the time-pressured present-day medical world of appointments of listening to the patient. We each recounted recent visits with physicians whose eyes were riveted on the computer screen, “click-clacking” notes during the visit to avoid spending additional time doing so after the encounter.
One of those present was a physician, but of the old school, who still sat down with a patient to talk about their symptoms and concerns! Astonishingly, this physician kept his attention on the patient. We marveled at this quaint practice.
Yet, focused, deep listening to a patient is not just nostalgic yearning or a practice that is irrelevant to modern-day medicine. It is critical for a correct diagnosis; it is crucial in providing a healing experience.
In his 1982 New England Journal article, physician Eric Cassell observed that failing to understand the nature of patients’ suffering can lead to medical intervention that not only fails to relieve the individual’s suffering but also becomes a source of it.
Consider this commentary in 2014 by Robert Swendiman when he was a fourth-year medical student. He described an emergency room encounter with a patient in her mid-60s, a heavy smoker who was emaciated, having lost 80 pounds over the past six months. Her presenting complaint was that of constipation. How was he to understand her?
Dr. Swendiman wrote that his first-year clinical medicine professor had two rules: 1) Sit down with every patient. Why? It was comfortable, and it made the patient feel more at ease. 2) Never act like........