RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 It’s Not You, It’s Me: Learning to Navigate the Patient-Physician Relationship
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 271
OP 273
DO 10.1370/afm.2644
VO 19
IS 3
A1 Melissa B. Hill
YR 2021
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/19/3/271.abstract
AB In this essay, a medical student details how she struggled to let go of a patient with whom she connected throughout the patient’s pregnancy during her second year of medical school. Although she learned in her preclinical “doctoring” courses how to build quick connections with patients, such training did not delve into how to manage meaningful, emotionally complex connections that may form with patients during longitudinal rotations or, as in this case, extracurricular activities. While primary care physicians may have decades of practice managing evolving longitudinal relationships, medical students who form strong connections with patients are just learning what it means to navigate those relationships, some of which come to an end. Reflecting on the end of this particular relationship helped the author appreciate the power of the longitudinal physician-patient relationship and taught her that taking care of patients also requires taking care of one’s self.