As a palliative care clinician, I spend many moments throughout the week sitting in silence with patients, absorbing stories of discomfort and overwhelm, resisting platitudes, which I know can cause more harm than good. Remaining quiet requires training and discipline. “I always want to fill the space with words,” said a physician assistant student who…
Tag: clinical practice
On therapeutic nihilism
What we do is less about being right — though surely, that matters — and more about doing right by others, accompanying them in their journeys, marshaling the resources (cognitive, emotional, material) we have available to us to do so.