Selzer’s The Exact Location of the Soul captures the essence of being a physician by using first person point of view, a series of personal anecdotes, and such striking imagery. In using a first person point of view, Selzer provides a direct link between the narrator and the audience. The thoughts and emotions of the physician/surgeon aren’t filtered through the distance of a third person narrator, instead they are raw and at the moment, as the physician feels them. Selzer begins the passage by explaining why a surgeon would write. A surgeon is so used to such gory things, such as “feeling the slow slide of intestines against the back of his hand”… why would he take the time out his day to write? Selzer describes writing as a form of expression. Writing is a way to “search for some meaning in the ritual of surgery, which is at once murderous, painful, healing, and full of love.” Personally, that line was my favorite in the piece. Surgery has many implications- yes, it can kill and it can cause pain (not only to the patient, but the family of the patient), but at the same time, it is performed so that the patient can heal and suffering can end. In the next paragraph, Selzer emphasizes that point by describing the motive behind surgery. He explains how a surgery isn’t performed with the intention of cutting flesh, repairing a problem, and moving on to the next patient. The …show more content…
The story is about a priest who had lost his faith, yet continued to do his priestly duties because he felt obligated to help his people. The priest in the story is somewhat analogous to physicians in the sense that both feel an obligation to help others. In his final anecdote, the surgeon recalls on a time in medical school where he removed botfly larvae from a patient’s arm. He had thought that he’d performed a life-saving procedure, but realized that the problem would have cured itself. In this sense, the surgeon preaches
He relates this experience to the fact that medicine is “anonymous, thankless, faceless, and uncertain” but also “necessary”. I think it is interesting how he feels that it is “necessary” that most of the practice of medicine is faceless. In my opinion, this may be a result of the field of medicine he is in. For some fields of medicine like emergency medicine, most doctors see the patient at the onset of the emergency and then rarely again. However, other doctors like Pediatricians or Family Medicine Physicians see their patients on a regular basis and in that case their practice of medicine, in my opinion, can’t be faceless or not caring about establishing empathy with
The English poet William Ernest Henley ended his most famous poem with the line “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” I have embodied this phrase in my personal life for years, but in recent years it has come to reflect my passion and dedication to become a Physician Assistant (PA). Nevertheless, a simple quote did not spark my initial interest in becoming a PA. I was first inspired by Henley’s words through my own personal struggles in my early college years; an arduous journey of self-discovery and humility. In an effort to guide me on my way, my mother gave me a paperweight with the aforementioned words inscribed around a compass. This seemingly symbolic gift held much more power and inspiration than she could have ever imagined. While certainly not easy, overcoming these obstacles has taught me the true meaning of perseverance, resoluteness, and faith.
It was his first time to work in a hospital. He started to work as a doctor. Giving prescription and diagnose patient were easy to him. All of medical science had been mastered by him. But there was something that he didn’t have. The sincerity never followed him as a doctor. He couldn’t felt the happiness when he healed his patient. He became as cold as ice. The smile didn’t come to his face as often as before. For him, since he was studying medical, he was not him anymore.
Everywhere you turn, there is a patient with a unique medical story, and they are all connected through a common purpose. Looking at the many rooms lining the hospital hallways strikes up my curiosity of every patient who ever laid in the
Medical students and surgeons avoid harm, but violence to break apart patients or cadavers’ body with the movement of objectification and personhood (Prentice, 2013, p. 60). Surgeon activates patients’ personhood in the operating room to remind themselves that patients is a person, and they need to be mindful of no harm to patients’ body; but at the same time, surgeons need to objectify patient’s body part in order to manage their emotions and avoid harm. Medical students do the same things as surgeon, they need to shift back and forth from objectification to the personhood of cadavers so that they can respect and not damaging
Today was my last day of serving as a medical apprentice. I woke up and had picked fruit from my courtyard garden to keep me energized for today’s events. I strolled through the agora (marketplace) on my way to the Academy of Plato when I came across three sickly children. As a healer, I had the greatest urge to examine and most of all soothe the children of their pain. However, time did not allow it, so instead I purchased a few loafs of bread, with the loose drachmas I had in my pocket. It is quite tragic that half the children in Athens die before they reach ten years of age. The look of gratitude on their faces reminded me of the reason I aspire to become a doctor. It is my passion to heal the wounded, cure the sick, and discover new treatments. The agora was bustling with people, I saw vendors,
While working in the lab, I, for the first time in my life, felt that my work and accomplishments were serving something larger than myself. When the time came to leave the lab I viewed the experience fondly, however, in the time since I have come to realize that as much as I enjoyed my experiences I what I really enjoy is the human side of medicine and the interaction with patients on a daily basis; I missed “Sue” and the reward that came from knowing who I was helping personally. For me the most important part of medicine is the people. At some point each of us made the decision that the need to heal patients and to help people was strong enough to decide to dedicate our lives to medicine. It’s what drives every physician, and researcher to keep working, even if a trial did not go the way they wanted or a patient is not responding to treatment. In English the original Hippocratic Oath reads in part “I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being”. When I first read this I was reminded why medicine is so unique and why I decided to go on this journey originally. It is this belief that continues to give me the strength to continue even when I am knocked down. It is what I see every time I shadow a doctor and how I try to model myself in my life. Because of these experiences, I have come to the absolute
Calling Dr. Brown—I saw my first patients while in Mrs. T’s Imaginarium Court tucked in a corner of my K/1 combo class at Bergeson Elementary. It was a place of dreams and aspirations, painted with bold colors, lavished with fabrics and costumes, and encouraging an array of childhood imaginations. This corner represented my inner desires. Dressed in my white lab coat with a stethoscope draped over my neck, I sat anxiously awaiting the chance to cure my patients’ boo-boo’s, intent on serving my own dose of care and empathy.
As a writer, I can offer a unique perspective. For example, when I plan stories, I must consider several factors such as culture and personality traits to design how the characters I create will realistically respond to various situations. These holistic thinking skills that I have developed over time coincide well with a physician’s treatment of the whole person. As a physician and writer, grasping this understanding of people’s psychological and social dimensions is critical to best care for them. In summary, interpreting medicine as an art of transforming empathy and science into healing is an outlook that I can contribute at GW.
Many institutions can provide a plethora of resources, exposure to various hospitals, and time with medical professionals. After all, these institutions are designed explicitly to create doctors of an acceptable caliber. Few institutions, however, seek to develop the healer in the doctor. Though medicine is a highly technical field with new procedures and medicine to be studied, it is a viscerally humane exercise. At the end of the day, medical professionals, especially D.O.s, must deal with the patient’s mind, body, and soul, together. This certainly cannot be done with a sterilized, objective mindset.
But he did have a job to do, and it wasn’t the one he was doing with his hand. So he comforted her, once more seeking to alleviate her guilt. But my, weren’t the things he said interesting? How sucking her teacher off might make her feel like a woman, an equal. That being the object of obsession for an older man was intoxicating. That a young woman might get addicted to that power. Oh, the good doctor was so close! So very close, not that he’d be able to see it until it was too late.
“He doesn’t look like a monster anymore,” the head surgeon announced to his team. Standing not ten feet away from the surgical table, I could hear the surgeon’s words perfectly. First shock, then realization, and finally anger all hit me in the small room. How could someone entrusted with the patient’s well-being utter such a statement? The little boy who had just undergone surgery to repair his cleft lip would never know that the surgeon who ultimately saved his life had also called him a monster, yet his words would hold significant meaning for me. They would spark my determination to become a doctor who practices with integrity and compassion.
In today’s day, some doctors could careless about there patients well being. They care only about making money and what benefits them. “Physicians who are more comfortable with their work identity than with real intimacy”(Coles 317). This chapter reminded me that
The first issue that is found in the book is the old-fashioned way of doctors. A doctor named Mr. Butterworth is one of those antiquated doctors that make you feel senseless for not knowing what they are speaking about. He is from an era where doctors say “big” medical words, and the patients just nod their head and eat the medicine their given. He comes from a paternalistic and pompous tradition where doctors know best, and patients are just tools for them to make money. Mr. Butterworth never
The second message in this story is that medicine can bring people together like in our story. There was a slave who know how to heal the little white boy and actually cured him from going blind for the rest of his life. Which was very generous of him for healing the boys vision. One of the reasons that he had helped is because the two boys had grown up together so it would of have been like losing a friend if he didn't help. Money could have bought this boys freedom, but yet he kept it to himself and to his trib. The Author quotes, “Now, there’s a doctor for you” and what this means is that this little black boy could be going places if he wanted to because of the knowledge that he already has. He could have all the money in the world if he wanted too, but yet he chooses to keep what he knows a secret. WHich is very noble of him, but yet can be viewed as selfish at the same time because he has the choice to save millions of peoples vision and chooses not too. Which can be a good thing, but yet selfish?