Physicians - Healers, Teachers & Wise Elders

     "This book is for physicians who have good days and bad — and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves. It is for physicians who refuse to harden their hearts, because they love patients, healing, and the healing life." — Parker J. Palmer
     For many years, Parker Palmer has worked on behalf of physicians and others who choose their vocations for reasons of the heart but may lose heart because of the troubled, sometimes toxic systems in which they work. Hundreds of thousands of readers have benefited from his approach in The Courage to Heal, which takes physicians on an inner journey toward reconnecting with themselves, their patients, their colleagues, and their vocations, and reclaiming their passion for one of the most challenging and important of human endeavors.
     This book builds on a simple premise: good healing cannot be reduced to technique but is rooted in the identity and integrity of the physician. Good healing takes myriad forms but good healers share one trait: they are authentically present in the clinic, in community with their patients and their calling. They possess "a capacity for connectedness" and are able to weave a complex web of connections between themselves, their calling, and their patients, helping their patients weave a world for themselves. The connections made by good physicians are held not in their methods but in their hearts — the place where intellect, emotion, spirit, and will converge in the human self — supported by the community that emerges among us when we choose to live authentic lives."

     Doesn't everything above ring true? Yet in the original quote, all the words in blue referred to teachers and teaching, for Palmer's inspiring books are written for teachers, not (specifically) for physicians. Of course physicians are also teachers: to patients, health-care policy-makers & administrators, and healers-in-training. And most importantly, the finest physicians teach everyone, by the example of their own life well lived - a life of wisdom.

        Palmer PJ. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. Jossey-Bass, 2007.

     Inspired by Palmer's writings, on April 24-27, 2013, the 2nd annual gathering: 

Integrity in Healthcare: The Courage to Lead in a Changing Landscape

http://www.couragerenewal.org/institute

 

Fall in Nova Scotia