Description

We will all be patients sooner or later And when we go to the doctor when were hurting we tend to think in terms of cause and condemnation We often look for relief not only from physical symptoms but also from our selfblame We want from our doctors kindness under any of its many names empathy caring compassion humanity We look for safety and forgiveness But we forget that doctors too are often in need of forgivenessfrom their patients and from themselves No doctor enters the medical profession expecting to be unkind or to make mistakes but because of the complexity of our current medical system and because doctors are human they often find themselves acting much less kindly than they would like to Drawing on his work as a primary care physician and a behavioral scientist Michael Stein artfully examines the often conflicting goals of patients and their doctors In those differences Stein recognizes that kindness should not be a patients forbidden or unrealistic expectation This book leaves us with new knowledge of and insights into what we might hope for and what might go wrong or right in the most intimate clinical moments