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OtherArt of Family Medicine

Gratitude

Pam Lenkov
Canadian Family Physician July 2018; 64 (7) 529;
Pam Lenkov
Site Director for Undergraduate Medical Education at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto, Ont, and is a physician and educator at Women’s College Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
MD CCFP
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Figure

Sometimes students can forget, in the excitement of learning, that each correct diagnosis has consequences for the person who receives it. “To a First-Year Medical Student,” written from the perspective of a teacher, is about tempering learners’ elation at acquiring new skills by reminding them that each human being is more than the sum of their physical parts. Themes include humanity, enthusiasm, respect, and appreciation.

To a first-year medical student

Ambulatory patient number 1

Was in today to be the lungs

Where last week

Her heart was paramount

To the learning process

Beatific smile worn in assent

(Should sainthood be conferred?)

Allowing medical students to navigate

The presence of her breasts

To map the landmarks of her chest

And I teach you to preserve their dignity

And so the weeks elapse

This patient 1 gives way to 2, then 5, then 10

The last who on that day afforded you a knee arthritic,

A varicosed leg, and a liver edge

Skills gained, skills reinforced

Examinable first then practical, practicable

But they departed, fated with their findings

Those rales you auscultated

Succumbed to failure (of the heart)

The turbulence you palpated

(The “thrill” that thrilled you!)

Belied the fatal valve

The jaundiced eyes, you observed

The wasted frame

Was overrun (“gastric cancer” he told you, I know)

Many now deceased after years of being “the patient”

These lungs were his

This heart was hers

This kyphotic back

Like so much scaffolding

Around the history

That you have taken/built, was wrapped

I want to say

“Be rapt today!” because

When all that knowledge gained is at your “clerking”

fingertips

You will (you must!) remember them

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    None declared

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada
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Canadian Family Physician: 64 (7)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 64, Issue 7
1 Jul 2018
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Gratitude
Pam Lenkov
Canadian Family Physician Jul 2018, 64 (7) 529;

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