- Humans in Healthcare
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- Humans in Healthcare: Chapter 18
Hey, friend. How are you?
Have you felt the weight of the world like I have these past few weeks?
Me too. We can carry it together if you’d like.
I don’t have a story to share with you today, only some words from my heart, an update on this Humans and Healthcare initiative, and a participatory request.
Please take the time to read to the end as I’d like your thoughts on the evolution of this initiative.
Heart on sleeve. Soul exposed. Here we go.
Something’s been troubling me lately.
I’ve been seeing increasing dehumanization play out on social media, particularly between healthcare professionals vs. healthcare professionals and professionals vs. patients.
MD/DO vs. PA vs. NP vs. PharmD to name a few. The increasing normalization of the word “Noctor” and the way it’s nonchalantly used to dehumanize a non-physician clinician is troubling.
And, patients vs. professionals, too. Last week, there was a firestorm debate on X (formerly Twitter) when a physician stated that abusive words and behavior from patients should be documented in the chart and a warning that future medical professionals read said documentation.
Arguments ensued from all sides. Healthcare professionals shared countless stories of abusive behavior from patients. Patients shared the difference between being rude and abusive and how the two often get lumped together, unfairly labeling them and following them through their healthcare journey.
The points and perspectives are valid. However, the hate and disparagement that ensued far outweighed the well-reasoned points that were being made.
The physician who wrote the comment was being threatened by people on social media with being reported to their employer and the medical board, subjected to growing hate for a comment that has an element of truth.
But it’s not just this comment. It’s multiple commentaries where the immediate reaction is to disparage, dehumanize, blame, slander, report, sue, etc. instead of pausing, reflecting, and then responding.
It is said that we are judged by our actions, but in this day and age, we are canceled by our words and given little opportunity to engage in a respectful dialogue that allows everyone to be heard.
And if I had to get down to the root cause, I suspect much of this conflict is rooted in not being heard.
I’m not here to give my take on who is right. It’s not a matter of who is actually right. It’s a matter of what is right.
Is exchanging hate…right?
Is dehumanizing and disparaging someone…right?
Is slandering someone…right?
In the moment, it may feel so right. But in the aftermath, does it still feel right?
What is just and what is right?
The words I keep coming back to are this: we do not have to like each other, but we are called to love each other. See each other. Hear each other.
That is in essence what our shared humanity is.
When we lose it, we are lost.
I fear we are becoming more lost by the day.
And that deeply troubles me.
It’s also clear that there is an erosion of trust between all parties in healthcare.
We need to have these conversations and talk about why, no matter how difficult. Is social media the place? More often than not, instead of having a respectful debate, what is brought out of it is disrespect, dehumanization, and hate. Yes, social media is somewhat skewed toward this, but how can we anticipate these conversations in real life when we hide behind the reality of them through our online identities?
The whole point of Humans in Healthcare is to call us to courage, curiosity, and compassion through common humanity. To bridge us together through sharing lived experiences.
A healthcare professional sharing that they also struggle with mental health or also struggled through caregiving could help a patient remember that the professional in front of them is also a human who may be struggling and perhaps allow them to extend grace if they have to wait extra time or if they might feel rushed in their visit.
Connection. Empathy. Humanity.
A patient sharing how they’ve felt invalidated in their medical office visits could help a healthcare professional stop and reflect before they enter a patient room. It could help them refrain from using the words non-compliant or drug-seeking because they read a story about how it made someone feel — and they cared enough to listen and see someone in their shame and pain — universal feelings we all experience regardless of the circumstance.
Connection. Empathy. Humanity.
This only happens when we have an attitude of curiosity, not one of judgment, and when we strive to get it right, not to be right.
I’ve shared with you my love for the theatre. Lately, I’ve been trying to expend more creative energy and reconnect to things outside of healthcare. The theatre is one of those places.
As I was re-reading the book Respect for Acting by revered teacher Uta Hagen, I came across her words below. While they are about the theatre, isn’t the same true of healthcare? Of life?
Let me say something about ethics in the theater. Another reason for the collapse of well-intentioned venture after venture is sloth and egomania. We must accept that the theater is a communal adventure. Unlike the soloist we can’t perform alone in the theater. (Only Ruth Draper, the monologist, was able to do that.) The better the play, the more we need an ensemble venture. We must recognize that we need each other’s strengths, and the more we need each other’s professional comradeship, the better the chance we have of making theater. We must serve the play by serving each other; an ego-maniacal “star” attitude is only self-serving and hurts everyone, including the “star.” We must aim for “character” in the moral and ethical sense of the word, compounded of the virtues of mutual respect, courtesy, kindness, generosity, trust, attention to the others, seriousness, loyalty, as well as those necessary attributes of diligence and dedication.
Like the theatre, we must accept that healthcare is a communal adventure.
We must accept that this life is a communal adventure.
We must accept that humanity is too.
To sum it all up, I’ll leave you with this, shared on my social media a few months back.
I would suggest that healthcare is one of the worst places for inclusion because it’s mostly focused on exclusion.
Us vs. them.
Credential vs. credential.
Degree vs. degree.
Doctors vs. Doctors.
Doctors vs. Nurses.
Doctors vs. NPs.
Doctors vs. PAs.
PAs vs. NPs.
AI vs. clinicians.
Clinicians vs. patients.
Administrators vs. clinicians.
We make very little room for collaboration because we are focused on competition and who is right.
When we take an Us vs. Them approach, we solve for nothing other than ego.
Who is, actually, right?
Medicine is a daunting profession, best performed with the support and community of a caring and nurturing team. Like the theatre, it is a communal adventure.
And if this is true, we shouldn’t be competing against each other or putting ourselves against each other. Instead, we should be supporting each other.
Because here’s the truth:
MDs make mistakes.
DOs make mistakes.
PAs make mistakes.
NPs make mistakes.
PharmDs make mistakes.
RNs make mistakes.
RDs make mistakes.
PTs make mistakes.
OTs make mistakes.
SLPs make mistakes.
RTs make mistakes.
Patients make mistakes.
Administrators make mistakes.
____ make mistakes.
Every person, regardless of their title or role in medicine or healthcare, makes mistakes.
Everyone.
How would you want to be treated if you made a mistake?
My guess is compassionately, not shamefully.
Yet, we treat each other shamefully.
We blame. We shame. We disparage. We dehumanize.
Yes, our knowledge levels may be different.
Yes, our training levels may be different.
Yes, our experience levels may be different.
We are not all equal in that.
But we are all, equally, human.
No one is an expert in being human.
And knowledge isn't static, it's dynamic.
So is experience.
No one knows everything.
We should have enough humility to teach each other when there are teachable moments.
And enough humility to learn from each other, too.
Everyone has something to teach.
Everyone has something to be taught.
When we reduce a person to a profession that we may or may not agree with, but have never actually interacted with them or gotten to know them, we are dehumanizing them.
So, the next time we dehumanize someone by reducing a person to what their title may or may not represent, to a mistake, to how they are different than us, remember — they are an imperfect human. Just like me and just like you.
It’s easy to bond around a common enemy.
But that further perpetuates the Us vs. Them approach.
We are not each other's enemies.
We are on the same team that is intended to serve patients, not our egos.
We are MORE SIMILAR than we ARE DIFFERENT.
Perhaps we should start there.
We have so much more collective power than we realize, but to utilize it, we must work together, not against each other.
We’re all human (okay, except AI).
Let’s remember that.
In humanity,
Amy
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