Which all sounds very nice until a medical student encounters
his or her first crack cocaine addict or grumpy senior citizen or
out-of-control child or otherwise uncooperative, unpleasant or
pathetic patient.

To help students prepare for that reality, this year GHHS applicants were asked to submit essays describing “a barrier a physician might face to practicing humanistic patient care” and how it might be overcome. Below are excerpts from some of the third-year DMU osteopathic students who were inducted in GHHS this spring. We trust they’ll be highly humanistic physicians.

With Martha, I realized that helping her was not putting her through surgery, chemotherapy or radiation to shrink the cancer. Helping Martha was…most importantly keeping her dignity and respecting her decision to die peacefully at home. Medicine is not always about providing a cure, but it is about showing compassion and providing care to each and every patient.

— Ashley Peters

Humanism encompasses being human yourself and allows you to grow as an individual with your patients. I think that to be truly humanistic is to allow yourself to be vulnerable with your patients and let them see some of your flaws. In the end, patients need to believe their physicians have a partnership with them in order to better their personal outcomes.

— Kelsi Froom

A housewife and mother of two, my patient developed depression and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope… In the emergency room, the doctor labeled her as “an abuser,” consulted psychiatry and moved on to his next patient…I could instantly tell that this woman was profoundly depressed and in a great deal of pain. While we spoke, she confessed how embarrassed she was of her actions. She told me she knew all the doctors assumed she was a terrible mother and wife, but that in reality she was quite functional; she used drugs and alcohol so her family would survive. As she lay in bed, crying, I told her that it was not my place to judge but rather to understand her and to do whatever was in my power to make her medical journey proceed toward healing and self-empowerment.

— Shai Feingold

Eventually the physician told me that [the patient’s] mother was trying to abandon him. This loving, curious and self-conscious nine-year-old boy had spent nine of the last 12 months in the hospital for minimal reasons. The last day of my rotation, the boy cried when I told him I would not be coming anymore. I choked up, too, knowing that everyone in his life has been a transient player. With my attending’s permission I decided to come back and see him a couple times in the evening that next week…When I showed up, he was very surprised. I told him I was there to play some games because he was a very “cool guy.” His eyes lit up.

— Tasha Beenken-Grimm

I was drawn to education for the same reasons that I decided to switch to medicine: the emphasis on using my skills and training to empower people by giving them control over their own lives… I believe that an essential part of being an effective physician is educating the patient. This is an important show of respect, for it not only lets the patient feel like more than a collection of symptoms, but gives them the tools to make their own effective decisions about their course of treatment.

— Alexandra Iannone

This year [at the Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Michigan] has shown me that the highest honor a medical student can receive is not a glowing evaluation from a preceptor or a resident, but for patients to request to be under your care. What higher honor is there for a physician?

— Charles “Jace” Taylor

Amid our lives and interests outside of DMU, our faculty and staff have one thing in common. We are all engaged in making Des Moines University a great place to work and to learn. And how do we do that? Just what goes into operating a great university?

The work we do to enhance the programs and initiatives at DMU starts with the people who came before us. They have given us a solid foundation that we are building upon to keep DMU on the arc toward greatness. That requires that we have highly competent people and the right people in the right positions throughout the organization. It requires that we have a well-defined mission and a well-articulated plan for achieving that mission. It requires that we have the resources necessary to carry out that plan.

You can be assured that we either have all these ingredients or are working hard to get them. For example, we have launched a strategic planning process that will continue through the coming months. But it takes more than people, a mission, a plan and money to successfully operate a great university.

It takes trust.

We must trust each other to have the competency to perform our assigned jobs. We must trust each other enough to be given the freedom and authority to perform our responsibilities, with the knowledge that we are accountable for the outcome. We must trust that we all will always act in the best interest of the University, not to advance ourselves, our department or our college at the expense of the University. And we must trust each other to conduct ourselves in an ethical manner. Societies have laws, games have rules and organizations have policies and procedures – all intended to assure fairness, equity and orderly conduct of our daily affairs.

Our success takes collaboration. Anything we do – planning a new building, formulating a strategic plan, revamping a curriculum – we do better if we get broad input from all interested parties. The phrase “all of us are smarter than one of us” applies to almost every endeavor we undertake at DMU.

It takes focus. In everything we do, we need to keep the mission of the University in mind. We need to continually ask ourselves how a particular proposal or plan of action helps us accomplish our mission.

“We’ve got the right ingredients
for a exceptional University.
But there’s more to the mix
than just people, a plan,
a mission and money.”

It takes patience and discipline. For DMU to be a truly great university, we must keep our eyes on long term goals. We cannot be distracted by what might be gratifying in the short term, but not in the best interest of the University in the long term. Quick fixes or exceptions to a policy “just this once” invariably come back to haunt us.

It takes joy. To do something extremely well, you must enjoy what you are doing. While we at DMU are involved in important work and serious activities, we take joy in guiding students on their professional journeys, in helping our clinic patients gain a greater quality of life, in discovering knowledge in the lab and beyond, and in the powerful, positive force of our drive to do a world of good.

I believe all these ingredients are as important to you as they are to us. Our collective trust deserves your trust – confidence that DMU is an exceptional university that’s only getting better. Our collaborative efforts to reap better results are enhanced by your input and support. Our focus, patience and discipline are sharper with your expertise. And our joy in all our endeavors is an experience we want to share with you.

Is DMU a great university? I certainly think so. And I believe we continue to become greater. It is up to all of us to make that happen – and I trust we will.

Stephen Dengle is interim president of Des Moines University and a DMU employee since 1979, most recently as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Photo © istockphoto/Dale Taylor