DOCTORS’ LOUNGE
A DISCERNMENT
Martin Huecker, MD
W
e each spent five minutes
eating one raisin. Didactics
Conference in Emergency
Medicine typically involves a few PowerPoint presentations and gruesome clinical
photos. At any time, 75 percent of my residents might be focused on the presenter.
Others are thinking about active patients
in the ED, sick ones from the night before, checking phones for FOAMed posts
aligning with the lecture, or of course
power-napping. But this time, for 5 minutes, 100 percent of the room shared a
focal point of attention, a raisin. Once the
raisin was mindfully consumed, Dr. Jon B
Klein led us through another five minutes
of mindfulness meditation focused on
breathing. Isolated in the conference room
behind the Emergency Department, we
separated ourselves from the chaos of the
ED, research projects, procedure logging
and interpersonal concerns.
Recently in GLMS, Dr. Couch introduced
the topic of mindfulness in the framework
of medical students and their focus on patients. I have always loved the analogy of
looking to the bottom of still versus choppy water. When we are attempting to be
present with patients, we can only discern
what is relevant in that encounter if we
minimize distractions. In the same way,
we must discern what is important in life
in order to be present and find meaning in
what we do every day. The Buddh