The physician-patient dichotomy is reinforced continuously in medical education and medical practice. The physician possesses knowledge that will be used to help the patient in some way. However, as human beings, physicians are subject to the illnesses and diseases that affect their patients. Physicians moved by this role-reversal may feel compelled to record their experiences, leading to an accumulation of “physician-as-patient literature.” Five examples of “physician-as-patient” literature illustrate five fundamental lessons that can be adapted by physicians: relating to patient vulnerability, fostering hope for patients, mobilizing support systems, recognizing physical consequences of disease, and appreciating patient quality of life. By generalizing these individual stories, it is not necessary for physicians to experience the exact disease or illness they treat. Rather, they can draw from their unique life experiences to practice empathy. The concept of empathetic medicine can be introduced in medical school training by integrating empathy education into scientific curriculum. Current practitioners can benefit from narrative exercises, reflection and physician self-disclosure in efforts to promote empathy. Medical practice requires solid relationships between human beings, physicians and patients. This basic principle is further emphasized in “physician-as-patient” literature and concerted efforts by institutions and individual physicians can lead to a foundation for a culture of empathy. / Urban Bioethics

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Department of Philosophy, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Peg Brand, James Capshew, Richard Gunderman, Jane E. Schultz. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-122).

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This project contributes to the improvement of the healing encounter between physician and patient and broadens the scope of medical ethics via application of a methodology that creatively communicates patient experience. Contemporary medical training and socialization can create emotional distance between patients and physicians, which has both positive and negative effects. A physician’s “detached concern” often renders patients’ ways of knowing irrelevant to their care. This has a negative effect on patient autonomy, trust, and the healing encounter in general. Herwaldt (2008) developed a pedagogical tool of distilling patient interviews in narrative form into “found poems,” in which the patient experience is expressed in verse; Herwaldt contends that the resulting poems hold the possibility of cultivating empathy in medical practitioners. My research extends Herwaldt’s work with a new set of ten patients currently in cancer treatment, translating their stories of illness into verse. The resulting poems have the potential to empower patients by legitimizing their narrative or experiential ways of knowing as complementary to physician perspectives and approaches to treatment. Clinical and feminist ethics are similar in their attention to case context, empathy, and legitimacy of narrative. However, there are aspects of feminist ethical theory that are not thoroughly delineated in clinical ethics—specifically, attention to power imbalances in medical structures and variations in ethical perspectives. When the poems are examined using a feminist bioethical framework, patients are empowered by expanding both the idea of justice and the principlist definition of autonomy to include the feminist conception of relational autonomy.