A Way Forward for Health Care and Healers

Abstract

The reaction1 to Egnew’s essay “Suffering, Meaning, and Healing: Challenges of Contemporary Medicine”2 reveals deep yearnings and strong convictions among clinicians, patients, and medical students. Clinicians describe a yearning for an integrative approach to medicine in which “relational wisdom and clinical wisdom [are] inextricably tied together”3 so that we can “reclaim our own souls, and…learn to heal again.”4 On an individual level, this requires self-awareness5 and a willingness to provide patients with space in which healing can take place.6 On a broader level, it requires medical training that emphasizes patient centeredness7 and the ability not only to communicate but to connect.6 In addition, according to a medical student, role models of physician healers “are essential to counteracting the sometimes unhealthy pressures we face as students.”8 Patients describe the transformative power in self-defined healing,9 and they challenge us to develop language that reflects a true partnership between clinicians and beneficiaries of care.10 Family medicine, which sprang from a desire to revolutionize care, may be a natural home for the physician-healer movement, according to Farber: “My hope is the old revolutionaries of Family Medicine will join forces with the new revolutionaries of Palliative Care to further move us along the path of training and supporting physician healers.”11 This powerful essay and compelling discussion light an undeniable path forward to re-form health care, starting with ourselves, to reduce suffering, restore meaning and promote true healing. Consider reading the essay and discussion on paper, away from your computer, but close to your heart. Then, consider how you can begin the inner transformation and external action that these words compel.