Empathy

The Good Listening Project - Ravenna Raven - Empathy poem.JPG

She talked about how hopeful med students feel when they first start out, and told me she worried that it would get harder for doctors to hold onto hope and empathy the further along they were in their careers.

She also told me how important stories were to her and joked about the influence that the TV show ER probably had on her while growing up. I loved her answer when I asked why she became a doctor.

Listener Poet Ravenna Raven

The Gold Humanism Summit

October 2019

I’ve always been

a bit nosy so

I think that’s why

I became a doctor.

But it’s not easy

to show empathy

under pressure.

It might look like

spending five extra minutes

together and learning

our patients’ stories

so we can refer

to them by name

instead of by ailment

during the handover.

It would help

having more time

to reflect on these

moments of connection,

to rest and reset.

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