Responding to Suffering

Oftentimes my patient’s suffering is my opportunity.  It gives me the chance to treat their problem or relieve their symptoms. But their suffering also becomes my burden.

I first experienced this when, as a student, I was assigned to shadow a pediatrician.  We met with one of her patients, a teenage girl with chronic colitis that was not responding well to treatment. Her disease was draining her energy, interfering with her schoolwork, and causing social embarrassment and isolation.  She and her mother were considering surgical removal of her colon, but feared the consequences, including an at least temporary ileostomy.  The pediatrician described the treatment options clearly and dispassionately, but this did little to settle the girl’s distress, and she and her mother left the appointment in obvious turmoil.  The emotional weight of their turmoil somehow settled in me also, and I felt the heaviness of it the rest of that week. Little did I realize that I would eventually become a gastroenterologist, and care for similar patients myself!

Absorbing the impact of our patients’ suffering is part of healthcare work for many of us.  We develop responses to that suffering that allow us to care well for our patients and preserve our own equilibrium. But the accumulated burden we carry is nevertheless a major source of compassion fatigue. The work of bearing others’ suffering leads some of us to seek administrative rather than patient-care roles, or to leave healthcare for something different, or to retire early.

When we understand the spiritual landscape of suffering we gain fresh resources for coping with our patients’ distress. The Bible depicts healthy responses to suffering – responses that can mitigate our compassion fatigue, increase our professional satisfaction and even revitalize our own spiritual lives. In the third section of Healing Purpose we’ll discover how, by following the timeless story of Job.