Crossing the chiasm
sutured care in medical education
pp. 121-125
in: Sarah Travis, Amelia M. Kraehe, Emily J. Hood, Tyson E. Lewis (eds), Pedagogies in the flesh, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
Medical students learn to think like a doctor and act like a doctor—but how to feel like a doctor?Ironically, for a profession devoted to the study of the body, the experience of medical education can deny the physical presence of a physician's body. In this vignette, a family doctor shares her surprise at how she experienced her emotional engagement with a patient physically, through a small gesture which enabled patient and doctor to transcend the formal boundaries of their doctor-patient relationship. She reflects on the central role of the body in the expression of human caring. She wonders how medical education could re-focus on the body as perceptual to bridge the power divide between patient and physician.