![\"laura_burkishmer\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2016\/10\/laura_burkishmer-150x150.jpg\")
\u201cThe art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.\u201d \u2014 Voltaire<\/p>\n\u201cThe art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.\u201d \u2014 Voltaire<\/p>\n
This was the opening sentence of my personal statement for my application to medical school. At the time it fitted the brief of being catchy and unique for my application and it appealed to my sense of the “treating the person” type of medicine I thought I\u2019d be practising.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t think about this quote again until I was doing my F1 Palliative Care rotation. Nature didn\u2019t seem to be doing a very good job at healing the disease. Yet the hospice staff excelled at “amusing” the patient. I don\u2019t mean they were cracking jokes or prancing around in silly costumes (although they did sometimes), but they were treating the person psychologically and spiritually to ease the suffering whilst the disease eventually defeated nature.<\/p>\n
When I did my medical on calls I thought that the idea had finally come unstuck\u2014nature wasn\u2019t healing the patient, the cardiology registrar administering adrenaline and the anaesthetist providing oxygen were.<\/p>\n
But maybe nature has to exist and be functioning for these interventions to work. Maybe this was the science<\/em> of medicine, but the art<\/em> of medicine was the dignity the patient was shown even as multiple repetitions of CPR were performed, the holding of the patient\u2019s hand as they reverted to sinus rhythm and started gasping for breath, the soothing words as what had happened was gently explained, the clear supportive advice given for lifestyle changes and new medications to prevent it happening again.<\/p>\n If that was the opening line of my medical career then there is no surprise that in the middle acts I have become a GP. I can think of no other medical arena where we literally amuse the patient whilst nature heals the disease. How often we reassure patients and ask them to come back if the symptoms haven\u2019t resolved (they rarely come back).<\/p>\n “Amusing” comes in many forms in general practice. I learnt early on that patients like to leave the room with something, maybe a validation of their presentation, so they leave with patient information leaflets, phone numbers for counsellors or directions to the nearest leisure centre. Sometimes patients don\u2019t feel “amused” when I advise doing nothing for their sore throat whilst nature heals the disease. This is the art of medicine as well as the science.<\/p>\n Of course there is more to our job than offering a soothing word or a funny quip but remembering this quote always brings me back to the humanity in what we do: however fancy our drugs or techniques, the patient is always the focus of what we do and how we treat them as people is the art of our profession.<\/p>\n