Rebecca Quinn is a GP in busy Battersea in London. She is part of a thriving practice where she is surrounded by a host of inspiring colleagues for whom good patient care is a shared language, a craft, and (mostly!) a joy.
Teasing out patient expectations to pop neatly next to the acronym ‘ICE’* in a consultation is relatively easy, but can still leave us miles apart in agenda and understanding. Trying to make sense of their decisions and earning the right to be heard when we partner with them in their journey is a skill that is not won lightly. The balance needs to be felt for, over time, and on my better days I welcome the privilege that is ours of time in packages of ten, fifteen, thirty minute slots, to study the pattern and the weave of patients’ lives.
Narrative Medicine
A means by which participants can make some sense of their threads
And nurse the ends of their unravelled stories. The healing
Is in the weaving. Colours can be chosen slowly,
like saffron for brightness over the ochre rust of pain.
like mauve and ruby richness over livid green shame.
Each bead has its place. And each place is a platform
From which we can safely trace out a path
And resurface; time is our matrix.
I like flashing silver through the bobbles of my mistakes.
Delineating clouds can tame them; dense fog to a fluff
That can be picked off and blown away.
When you come wearing your cloth, I shall handle it gently.
There are no emperors here.
*Ideas, concerns, and expectations
Featured photo by SOCIAL.CUT on Unsplash
