Doctors can easily get into the pattern of treating their patients like a slab of meat to be fixed. Anyone who’s spent some time in hospitals have seen doctors waltz into the room, grab the chart from the end of the bed, mumble a few things to themselves, say a word or two to the patient and disappear as quickly as they arrived.

So it was heartening to see that there is a movement building called narrative medicine where doctors read and discuss stories about patients, literary stories and poems. This New York Times article is well worth the two-page read to see what some doctors are doing to engage the emotions of their interns and ensure humanity is returned to the doctor-patient relationship. By reading stories such as Empty Pockets and discussing what it means to the doctors they are creating a space for valuable conversation. This is similar to the Ritz Carlton example. And when asked about the time commitment:

And the time commitment? “It does get pretty busy,” Dr. Kaplan conceded. “But if you want to make time for it, you can. Spending a half hour a day to remember that we are all human, not just doctors or pharmacists or nurses or patients, is important enough that I think you should do it.

via Stephanie West Allen on Working Stories