Boonshoft Blogs

Perhaps one of the most memorable experiences thus far in my first year of medical school, other than trying to find the pterygopalatine fossa on a human skull, has been listening to some of the stories of my colleagues and friends. Here at the Boonshoft School of Medicine, most students enroll in an optional course called Healer’s Art. Every Wednesday night for several weeks, we students and faculty put aside our busy lives to share and listen to more intimate stories about our past, present and future.

It impresses me that not only are the medical students willing to devote time to the course, but the busy faculty and community physicians, many of whom are Wright State alumni, sacrifice their own precious time to participate as well. This indicated to me, and I hope indicates to anyone who is reading, that our faculty and community physicians contain what I believe to be honorable qualities of a physician, and perhaps most importantly, are teaching, reinforcing, and ultimately passing these qualities on to us, the next generation of physicians.

So what are these qualities? Two of the most important attributes that stuck with me after taking the Healer’s Art course were compassion and the power of listening. I believe compassion to be treating each patient not as a disease, or even as an isolated individual, but as a human being who has a family and friends, and that the holistic treatment of a patient is as important, if not more important than the treatment of that patient’s disease. It didn’t really surprise me that my peers showed a great deal of compassion when listening to my own stories, and I certainly hope I did the same for them. And the power of listening; physicians have such tremendous responsibility in society that often we believe there must be something we can do or say to help treat someone’s pain or ease their suffering. Ironically, sometimes a willingness to step back and just listen to your patients for a moment may be all that is necessary at times. During our group discussions in Healer’s Art, everyone was so respectful and willing to listen, without interjecting even if it may have been tempting. Certainly I believe that physicians should do anything in their power to help their patients, but sometimes those actions need only be passive, as a genuine willingness to listen.

So there you have it. There are so many excellent opportunities to grow as a medical student, and I believe many of these opportunities stem, ultimately, from the core values of this institution.