Opinion
AMNews edited out a resident's acknowledgement to her mentor
LETTER — Posted May 7, 2007
Regarding "Departing lessons" (Article, April 9): I was gratified by Dr. Pauline W. Chen's sensitivity until I read the last paragraph of the excerpt from her book, Final Exam. I find it odd that Dr. Chen never told her mentor how important his concern and compassion for a dying patient and family affected how she would practice medicine.
There are many teachers in my family. From their experience and from my own interaction with medical students and residents for over 30 years, I know how energizing and gratifying it is for students to tell you how they have benefited from your mentoring.
I don't understand the disconnect from her comforting patients and their families, while ignoring the "rewarding" of her mentor by sharing her feelings about his important interaction she witnessed.
I suggest she contact him, if possible, and thank him for making her a better physician.
Kenneth Zegart, MD, Louisville, Ky.
Editor's note: Dr. Chen did thank her mentor in her book. In editing the excerpt, the last sentence of this passage was cut due to space limitations. "I never discussed that morning's events or the contents of the woman's note with my former attending. I never revealed how his deviation from the norm affected me. I never told him that it was as if a shade had lifted ever so slightly, letting in the first rays of light, and that from that moment on, I would believe that I could do something more than cure. This narrative, then, is my acknowledgment to him."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/05/07/edlt0507.htm.
