https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4aWpjPtRwA

What do YOU think?

As Jill leaves, she always says, “I love you!”

Sometimes I whisper. Other times I scream down the hall: “I love you too!”

I think it’s illegal. Or risky. I’m supposed to contain my love, to practice professional distance. But why dissociate from myself or from those I care for? Why pretend to be reserved, restrained, aloof when I’m naturally warm, affectionate, friendly?

One day during med school I decided to break the rules, to celebrate my life without shame. And on that day I fell in love with myself and I gave myself permission to fall in love with my patients, to hug and kiss them, to sing and laugh with them, to look deep into their eyes, cry, and allow our tears to flow together.

On Valentine’s Day at my first job, I admitted an elderly man dying of heart disease. His wife–unable to bear the pain of watching him die–left his side. I could have left too, but it didn’t seem right to let this guy die alone on this romantic day so I sat with him, held his hand, and cried. A cardiologist, startled by my emotion, exclaimed, “You must be a new doctor,” then disappeared down the hall. Maybe old doctors don’t cry, but I don’t want to close my heart to the world.

Why is it unprofessional to love patients? Maybe love isn’t valued in a male-dominated profession. After all, love is not easily measured or reimbursed. Love is hard to control.

I was once a factory-farmed physician. Then I escaped.

Six years ago I left my job and invited my community to design an ideal medical clinic. Thousands of physicians nationwide have created similar ideal, patient-centered practices.

Would we ever go back? Nope. Never. But from what did we actually escape? I hosted an “antonym contest” among hundreds of free-range physicians to find out.

What’s the reverse of patient-centered care? What’s the opposite of an ideal clinic? Here’s what docs who got away report they’ll never try again:

• Cattle Car Clinic
• Doc-in-a-Box
• Meat Market Medicine
• McHealthcare
• Jiffy Lube
• Premature Consultation
• Primarily Don’t Care Provider
• Read more & click here for winner!

I celebrate my innovative colleagues who are demonstrating daily that it is possible to care for patients–and ourselves.

In honor of International Women’s Day I celebrate the perseverance of one female physician.

“In 1965 my mother, Judith Wible, received her medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Of 160 graduates, eight were female.

The dean and fellow classmates reminded the “girls” in the class that they were “taking a man’s seat” and they’d never use their degrees. Even the anatomy professor refused to accept female anatomy and persisted in addressing the women as men. Despite her protests, my mother remained “Mr. Wible.”

Women were excluded from urology—from palpating penises and prostates—while men dominated obstetrics and gynecology. Daily the women were exposed to filthy jokes that demeaned female patients, and in the evenings they slept in cramped nursing quarters while the guys had fraternities complete with maids, cooks, parties, and last year’s exams.”

Thanks mom!

We’ve come a long way . . .

Pamela Wible MD

(excerpt from Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change)