I know of no better way to start teaching a student of
medicine than by repeating over and over the old-time physician's concept of
his responsibilities toward his patients: to cure sometimes; to help often; to
comfort always.
Perhaps the most fundamental requirement to become a more
than ordinary practitioner is to be able to put yourself as wholly as possible
into the patient's place. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. I told my
young colleagues: "As you sit opposite your patient, try to think about
his or her problems so intensely that you lift yourself mentally into his
shoes, his seat, his pants, his home, his work, his problems."
They were told over and over again: "Every patient who
comes to us is in trouble. Whether the complaint seems serious or trivial to
you, it is serious to the patient and deserves your full attention and your
best efforts. You may have just seen ten patients with more grave or more
interesting skin diseases, but to the patient you are now examining, his
trouble is the most important in the world at that moment. You must be kind and
patient even with those who are over-demanding, unreasonable, even
antagonistic. Remember that those attitudes too are signs of illness and often
the results of fear, anxiety, or ignorance."
Marion B. Sulzberger
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