Summary - The Doctor Who Cried: A Qualitative Study About the Doctor’s Vulnerability.
Released: 18 May 08
Authors: Kirsti Malterud, MD, PhD and Hanne Hollnagel, MD, PhD
Annals of Family Medicine 3:348-352 (2005)
Summary: It is not often we come across literature especially journal articles with a title The Doctor Who Cried: … After all as the authors say in their introduction “the dominant lesson from medical school: doctors are omnipotent, detached, and impersonal.” The contradiction they add is yet, as general practitioners medical work is unavoidably laden with emotion and enhanced by personal awareness.
Although this qualitative study was written in a manner which required some re-reading of paragraphs to get the gist, it threw up some findings and provided examples which are worthy of consideration:
· Practitioner- patient disclosure of emotions or experiences is an important aspect of a positive expression of vulnerability. In one case study the doctor cries upon telling a patient her husband didn’t have long to live. Later on the patient describes this event publicly saying that it meant a lot to her that her doctor was touched by the situation.
· By sharing past experiences including complicated, personal problems can give patient hope for their future. After a doctor spoke of her divorce and her concerns for her children to a patient in similar circumstances. Following the doctor observed ‘a constructive interaction in the consultation’ between herself and the patient.
· A grateful patient felt that she had been acknowledged and treated as an equal by her doctor.
· A patient in chronic pain accusing the doctor of not listening adequately, illustrate the positive impact of the doctor honestly and spontaneously admitting that the patient was right. The doctor proceeded to treat the patient appropriately following his admission of fault.
Basically, these doctors realised it was okay to be human and openly express their own pain, their own vulnerabilities and their mistaken beliefs. However, the authors end on a cautionary note saying that “What goes on in the physician’s office is supposed to benefit the patient, not liberate or heal the doctor;” and that more is needed to learn about how responsible and responsive emotional knowing can be enacted acknowledging one’s vulnerability when recognizing the patient’s needs. To read the full article go to: http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/3/4/348#TA1
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