Spark [Robert_Klitzman]_When_Doctors_Become_Patients(Boo | Seite 287

276 Interacting with Their Patients
can evaluate that. I say to medical students, ‘‘In terms of your
interaction with people, you’re going to be where you already are.
Do you treat people nicely? Then that’s going to be the way you
practice medicine. If you’re not, we can’t change that.
Albert raised several issues here: whether students can shift; how such
alteration can be evaluated, if at all; and the degree to which trainees
differ in underlying compassion for others.
Still, for the most part, illness opened these physicians’ eyes. Every med-
ical student probably won’t be required to stay in a hospital bed, tied to an
IV for a few nights. But the next best thing, I think, is to have trainees in-
crease their awareness of these issues through narratives such as those here.
Reconnecting with Patients: Improving the Process of Care
Despite these questions about teaching empathy, ill physicians offered
several specific, explicit ways to improve patient-doctor communication.
The experience of being patients themselves led many to treat their
patients differently, using a variety of techniques. They made sugges-
tions, large and small, offe