Teri Perse, M.D., has a maternal story line in her family that spans over 100 years. For at least four generations her family has cultivated irises. These flowers are a symbol of love and strength for her family.
Over the decades, and no matter where the home, the irises bloom on Mother’s Day. The family tubers thrived from Peoria, Illinois to the San Joaquin Valley, California. Her story is available as an eBook and is a touching read.
Compassion and physicians
Patients regularly lament the lack of compassion from physicians. The 15-minute appointments often become a rush of diagnose, treat, and move on. Patients wonder about thoroughness and physicians are frustrated by hectic schedules.
Compassion is something that can be measured. Researchers have pinpointed certain phrases and approaches to patients that improve the patient experience. One researcher wrote, “It became apparent that compassion is not a quality of a single utterance but rather is made up of presence and engagement that suffuses an entire conversation.”
Compassion begins with the physician
Perse reminds us that doctors come from the same place as their patients. Families go through ups and downs and have touchstones that remind them of their loved ones and give them strength in times of need. If doctors take their personal experiences and use them to relate to their patients, compassion becomes effortless and a natural extension of any exam.
We wanted to share Terse’s story with the medical community because 1) it’s a great short story and well-worth the read and 2) all proceeds (minus fees) go to support breast cancer research. As an M.D. or D.O. how do you bring compassion into your practice? We’ll be discussing it inside Sermo, join us. To all the mothers out there … Happy Mother’s Day.
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