20
doc • Summer 2014
Kentucky
Profile in Compassion
Standing in another
person’s shoes
By John A. Patterson
MD, MSPH, FAAFP
Ed Romond has practiced
oncology at UK for 30
years, specializing in breast
cancer. It would be more
accurate, however, to say that his specialty is
the patient who has breast cancer. He says, ‘I
care about my patients. They matter to me.
I think about how it must feel to be where
they are every time I talk to a patient.’
He’s concerned about self-images of professionalism that emerge from medical education. He says, ‘One concept is that you cure
disease and treat illness. The other is that
you care for people who happen to have diseases and illnesses. The difference between
these two is 180 degrees. If you’re only
treating disease, then you’ll have nothing to
offer when the disease itself is untreatable.
But if you care for people, you can always
do something, even if you aren’t treating the
disease. You can at least talk with them.’
physicians, I get the impression that most of
us practice with this attitude.’ A long-time
oncology colleague, Susanne Arnold, says,
‘Ed is the quintessential physician-scientist.
If I am half the physician he is one day, I will
be a great physician.’
Nurses describe him removing his white
coat to avoid frightening a child of an adult
patient. He believes, ‘It’s important to put
yourself in other people’s shoes- stand where
they are. This is more than altruism, where
you expect nothing in return. I think we get
a huge return. We are in this life together.’
Romond believes a key to sustaining compassion in medicine is keeping things in
perspective and integrating one’s profession
with family and the rest of one’s life. He
cares for patients and staff as he would his
own family. Patients tell his staff how much
they love him and consider him a friend.
He tells staff to go home and kiss their
kids. He tells newly diagnosed patients that
every patient with cancer he has met in 30
years has felt like the rug was just pulled out
from under them. This sets the stage for the
patient’s story to emerge as part of a therapeutic doctor-patient relationship based on
caring.
Romond says, ‘I love to be part of my
patient’s story.’
Citing Peabody’s classic 1927 JAMA article,
which ends- ‘One of the essential qualities
of the clinician is interest in humanity, for
the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient,’ Romond says, ‘that will
drive you to learn everything
you can and care for patients
as if they were your own family members.’ He tells students
and residents, ‘Medicine is a
profession, not simply a job.
Compassionate care is about
emotional intelligence- not
IQ. If you’re not an optimist,
don’t become an oncologist.’
For Romond, ‘Compassionate
care is simple. It comes from
standing in another person’s
shoes. The best way we can
transmit this is by modeling
it. I don’t think of myself as
that different. I just do my
best. When I talk with other
Dr Romond
About the Author
Dr Patterson is past president of the Kentucky
Academy of Family Physicians and is board
certified in family medicine and integrative
holistic medicine. He is on the family practice
faculty at the University of Kentucky College
of Medicine and the University of Louisville
School of Medicine. He operates the Mind Body
Studio in Lexington, specializing in stressrelated chronic disease and burnout prevention
for helping professionals. He can be reached
through his website at www.mindbodystudio.
org
“One concept is that you cure disease and
treat illness. The other is that you care for
people who happen to have diseases and
illnesses. The difference between these two
is 180 degrees.” – Dr Romond