Dignity and the essence of medicine: the A, B, C, and D of dignity conserving care

Kindness, humanity, and respect—the core values of medical professionalism—are too often being overlooked in the time pressured culture of modern health care, says HarveyChochinov, and the A, B, C, and D of dignity conserving care can reinstate them The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. The late Anatole Broyard, essayist and former editor of the New York Times Book Review, wrote eloquently about the psychological and spiritual challenges of facing metastatic prostate cancer. "To the typical physician," he wrote, "my illness is a routine incident in his rounds while for me it's the crisis of my life. I would feel better if I had a doctor who at least perceived this incongruity . . . I just wish he would . . . give me his whole mind just once, be bonded with me for a brief space, survey my soul as well as my flesh, to get at my illness, for each man is ill in his own way."1 Broyard's words underscore the costs and hazards of becoming a patient. The word "patient" comes from the Latin patiens, meaning to endure, bear, or suffer, and refers to an acquired vulnerability and dependency imposed by . . . [Full text of this article] Questions to be asked Actions to be taken Disposition Clinical examination Facilitating communication Getting in touch with one's own feelings requires the consideration of human life and experience Ways to show compassion Acknowledging personhood Knowing the patient Psychotherapeutic approaches