Doctor to new medical school grads: Listen to your patients

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a speech given at Philadelphia College of Ostopathic Medicine’s graduation ceremony on May 24. Daniel R. Taylor Taylor graduated from PCOM in 1997.

St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children has been serving the community of North Philadelphia for more than 145 years and I have had the privilege of working there for the last 20. The community surrounding St. Chris has some of the poorest health outcomes for children and adults in the state. A child born in our community, who remains there, has an average life expectancy that is 23 years lower than in Bala Cynwyd or Center City.

Soon enough, you will be confronted with similar facts and moral inequities in the community you will serve. What will be your response?

In 2010, I wrote a personal story called the “Haircut,” which was published in JAMA about a patient, a bullet, and the horror of gun violence in our communities. This story delved into my inability to do anything about it except write. Since then I have written more than 80 articles for The Inquirer dealing almost exclusively with inequities in health, and the personal stories behind them.

As disparities continue to persist, it is now your mission to get out of our traditional medical lane, and creatively fight for those most deserving of our care. We all have certain privileges and freedoms, and we must use these for good. Primum non nocere. First, do no harm. This is our duty as healers.

I want to share with you what I think is the root causes of many diseases. Is it your genetic code? A little. Is it your zip code? A lot. Is it stress? Yes. Is it lack of ease? Yes. Now put the prefix, dis in front of ease. What does that spell? Disease.

This should be one of our priorities. Helping ourselves and our patients find ease. Ease from pain and suffering. Ease from fear. Allowing yourself to be open to your patients and yourself. To share in the commonality of suffering and the commonality of shared joy.

» READ MORE: A pediatrician who serves children of color discovered his implicit bias. Here’s what he’s doing about it.

Just this week, I was looking at a Facebook post from a friend and it went on and on about a child that listened irritably to a 50-year-old man discussing life, loves, regrets, patience, joy. He tells the boy that “there is always room to correct, heal, grow.” The child smiles at the man and says it took you 50 years to figure this out? And the man smiles back and says, “yes, I’m saving you the wait.”

Listen to your mentors, your elders, your family and friends, and most important, your patients.

I would tell my younger self that when you get frustrated at electronic health records or lack of resources, please go back to the core reason you went into medicine. The emotion, the person, the experience that you all wrote about so eloquently in your medical school application packets. Remember that reason, and let it get you through the difficult times.

I would prioritize self-care whether it’s exercise, meditation, or talking to a friend. I guarantee it, the more you take care of yourself, the better a doctor you will be.

As a pediatrician I am obligated to quote from Dr. Seuss. “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” Pause and take a deep breath before doing this. Words can be so healing, but also so harming. Your goal with every patient encounter should be for that person to feel better, more hopeful, more at ease than before you walked into the room.

You have taken the first step in the journey of a thousand miles to becoming the best version of you. The version that will now don a longer white coat on rounds, that deeply knows that it is our obligation to open our hearts and minds, while helping heal the patients who have given you the honor of being their doctor.

Daniel R. Taylor is medical director of the outpatient center at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.