{"id":44648,"date":"2014-08-12T10:36:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T14:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?post_type=voices&p=44648"},"modified":"2014-08-12T10:36:39","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T14:36:39","slug":"from-the-mouths-of-babes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2014\/08\/12\/from-the-mouths-of-babes\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Mouths of Babes"},"content":{"rendered":"

CardioExchange welcomes this guest post from\u00a0Dr. Westby Fisher, an electrophysiologist practicing at\u00a0NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago\u2019s Pritzker School of Medicine.\u00a0This piece originally appeared on his blog,\u00a0Dr. Wes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Dad, you have the nicest patients!”<\/p>\n

She was right, of course. Daughters that you bring to work with you to shadow for a day can bring you back to what’s important in medicine.\u00a0 In fact, seeing medicine through fresh eyes is helpful, especially when we forget to look up from our work-a-day lives.<\/p>\n

\"daughter1sm\"<\/a>It had been over ten years since I had my first “Bring Your Daugher to Work” experience.\u00a0 Her first time she wore scrubs they were bigger than she was.\u00a0 She always remembered that day.<\/p>\n

There probably won’t be too many more times we’ll share such an experience together.\u00a0 Like most young college kids she’s growing her own life now, trying to decide what to do.<\/p>\n

“Why not shadow me and my nurse practitioner for a day to see what you think?\u00a0 I have a light day, you could really see what we do first-hand!”<\/p>\n

Much to my surprise, she agreed.\u00a0 And so we spent the entire day together once more.<\/p>\n

She saw everything I did but this time with a more critical eye.\u00a0 She saw everything my nurse practitioner did, too.\u00a0 Just in case.\u00a0 She witnessed the miracle of anesthesia, a strangeness of the “time-out,”\u00a0 then the jolt of a cardioversion.\u00a0 She saw the smile of the patient after it was all over.\u00a0 She saw the real discourse that occurs between colleagues that are used to working with each other.\u00a0 She saw the computer.\u00a0 She saw the EKG.\u00a0 She saw the family discussion afterward.\u00a0 Everything.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most touching was the moment we walked into a long-time patient’s room\u00a0\u2014 a fellow doctor\u00a0\u2014 and there he was, lying in bed with his ankles too swollen, with his wife, daughter, and granddaughters by his side.\u00a0 His eyes, while a bit sunken, were beaming when he saw me.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to introduce you you my family!” he exclaimed.\u00a0 And one by one he introduced me to his lovely wife, daughter, and granddaughters who had all come to spend some time with him. Of course, I couldn’t resist, and similarly gushed, “I’d like to introduce you to a member of my family, too!” I proudly introduced my daughter to him and the rest of his extended family.\u00a0 His grandaughters were slightly younger than my daughter\u00a0\u2014 just starting to think about college.\u00a0 My daughter, now a veteran of the college experience, offered some words of encouragement to them.\u00a0 They graciously nodded.\u00a0 I couldn’t help but marvel how therapeutic that interaction was for both of us\u00a0\u2014 doctor and patient\u00a0\u2014 a way to bring our lives a bit closer, our understanding more meaningful.\u00a0\u00a0 Medicine is like that sometimes: one minute you’re there to help the patient then you realize how much, in their grace, they help you.<\/p>\n

I pretended not to think about this as I checked his defibrillator.\u00a0 “Working fine,” I told him.\u00a0 He glanced at me and said “thank you” in a way I’ll never forget: nonverbally with his eyes, as if to say, “I know how you’re feeling.”<\/p>\n

\"daughter2sm\"<\/a>

Our “selfie” that day.<\/p><\/div>\n

We left the room and returned to the nurse’s station\u00a0\u2014 or maybe it should be called the “Computer Terminal Station,” since doctors, pharmacists, and physical therapists were all playing a game of musical chairs waiting for a terminal to open.\u00a0 More typing and staring at screens, more phone messages, documentation, lab checks, more typing, all clicked as fast as possible.\u00a0 Finally, after seeing more patients and typing more notes, we had a debriefing.\u00a0 Relaxed and looking forward to heading home, I asked her: “So what did you think?”<\/p>\n

“You know, Dad, it was wonderful.\u00a0 Your patients are all so nice.\u00a0 But…”<\/p>\n

There was a moment of hesitation in her voice, a concern, as she wrestled with how to break the news to me slowly; I could tell she didn’t want to disappoint me.<\/p>\n

“What is it?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“… there’s just so much typing!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wes Fisher reflects on how his “Bring Your Daughter to Work” days, both then and now, caused him to value his experience as a physician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}