04-06-2015, 08:47 PM
A Doctor's Empathy
Attentiveness but distance too: this is the posture he selects
in which to keep his vigil. The arm is outstretched
but he does not take it within hand; there is still pulse:
he can make out the slow rise and fall of chest.
It does not to panic, to be distraught: he can fault the parents not
but he is a doctor, and after this there will perhaps be a dozen more
patients on death beds, some to heal and others not: a dozen other
bedsides which would invite him to draw up a chair and sit.
He cares. He pays attention but he must pay distance still
elsewise one sickness, one death, will snatch this livelihood
away, and others’ hopes. For his job, this duty of care
he cannot afford to sit too close.
..
'The Doctor', Sir Luke Fildes' 1887
![[Image: The_Doctor.jpg]](http://www.humanjourney.us/images/The_Doctor.jpg)
The difference between empathy and sympathy. The second thing they teach us at the clinical school...after how to get lost.
Attentiveness but distance too: this is the posture he selects
in which to keep his vigil. The arm is outstretched
but he does not take it within hand; there is still pulse:
he can make out the slow rise and fall of chest.
It does not to panic, to be distraught: he can fault the parents not
but he is a doctor, and after this there will perhaps be a dozen more
patients on death beds, some to heal and others not: a dozen other
bedsides which would invite him to draw up a chair and sit.
He cares. He pays attention but he must pay distance still
elsewise one sickness, one death, will snatch this livelihood
away, and others’ hopes. For his job, this duty of care
he cannot afford to sit too close.
..
'The Doctor', Sir Luke Fildes' 1887
The difference between empathy and sympathy. The second thing they teach us at the clinical school...after how to get lost.
When it finally snows here, I'll catch a snowflake and put it in the fridge.