The caring physician: a journey in self-exploration and self-care

Caring for patients involves empathic listening and awareness of the needs and feelings of the patient as well as our own; the acceptance of the fallibilities of medicine and ourselves. Too often we lead unbalanced lives in terms of work, relationships, play and personal time. We frequently strive for perfection, deny our needs and feelings, assume total responsibility for the patient, and are altruistic to the point of self-denial. Caring for patients without adequately caring for ourselves is frequently associated with subconscious needs for external validation. The hidden agenda may be harmful to the patient and the physician. Change requires self-awareness and recognition of the overt and covert benefits and risk of our current work patterns. Often there is a need to reexamine our life priorities, set limits at work, admit vulnerability, share our emotional lives, and appreciate the small things in our daily life that give us meaning and purpose.