Dec 21, 2020
"I fear that assessment and instruction on bedside manner may dissociate the people skills from the person. Bedside manner should be streetside manner and couchside manner and barside manner and grocery storeside manner without geographic dependence."
Medical student Grace Ferri reflects on how life experiences outside the medical environment are integral to developing and shaping the empathy necessary when working with patients.
This essay placed in the 2020 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest and was published in the October 2020 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.