Submission by: David Go, OMSIII
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own… not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.”
Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)
I chose this quote for daily dose of humanities to remind us that there will be some difficult patients that we will encounter as physicians, but we must remain composed. We cannot let our frustrations compromise our level of care and compassion. Instead, try to understand why is it that the patient is frustrated. Sometimes listening and being present with the patient provides healing on its own. Patient health especially those with chronic disease is only achieved when patient’s trust their doctor and work together as a team to achieve the goal.
Daily Dose of Humanities 