Abstract
Divisive, disabling and dangerous power has featured heavily in health professions literature, social media and medical education. Negative accounts of the wielding of power have discoloured the lens through which the public sees medicine and distorted the view of a profession long associated with healing, humanism and heart. What has been buried in the midst of this discourse are positive accounts of power where the yielding of power is encouraging, empathetic and empowering. This article offers three personal vignettes illustrating the ability of power to positively affect lives in the practice of medicine, for patients and doctors alike. More of these stories are needed to uplift and rebalance the conversation on physician power and how it can be used for good. It is necessary to provide a narrative framework of what it looks like to be a healer and a humanistic doctor to satisfy the general public through a commitment to cultivate multidimensional future healthcare providers.
Highlights
Structural practices that foster power dynamics can be institutionally driven, as learners are dependent on positive assessments from supervisors for future job placements [2, 3]
With the literature mirroring the deleterious influence of medical hierarchy on student learning [6] and patient care [7], we are at risk of omitting positive narratives around physician power that can be used to exemplify physicians’ capacities for healing and empowerment
Weaving stories of caring interactions into the lexicon of medical education can further instill healing and humanism in physician identity [8], while honouring public expectations that physicians encompass more than biomedical expertise [9]
Summary
As I came towards the end of my medical training, I was faced with the enviable dilemma of choosing between two jobs. I have immense respect for one mentor in particular who was critical of the popular choice despite being affiliated with that same institution She would later prove instrumental in helping me negotiate my first job contract. My husband and I were really scared’ Her son had been admitted to hospital with a severe respiratory illness requiring intensive care. Both she and her husband thought they were going to lose him. I had a patient in the intensive care unit last week, and I was so scared that she was going to die because she was so sick. I do believe we have the great privilege, as well as hold an awesome power, to be for our patients what they see as a fundamental part of being a doctor— human
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