Looking for significance

Physicians have daily spiritual experiences at work but may not recognize their importance. You will have opportunities to be their rear-view mirror and help them find importance. People first experience events then put them into some context. Many times you will encourage colleagues to tell their stories and help them discover a greater context. The greater context is the one that helps the physician find meaning and purpose. When you work with a physician’s story there are two places to consider. The first place is where the event happened, because that place shapes the physician’s context. The second place is where you hear the story. You have little control over either venue but ask about the place. Questions like: “Why did that happen here?” Or: “What did it mean to you that it happened here?” For instance, an anesthesiologist who just had a dust-up with a surgeon may have a different context for the event if it occurred in the operating room, the recovery room, or the family consultation room. Ask: “Are you comfortable talking about that here in the nurse’s station? Would you prefer to grab a coffee or find an empty conference room?” The value of storytelling is far greater when the raconteur is comfortable with the surroundings.

Sacred places

We regard some places as sacred. Ground zero is one such place. An operating room, a patient’s bedside, the family consultation room can all be sacred. Our lives reside somehow in those places. They are places of significant personal transformation and commemoration. Events can make a place sacred to us, but there are places that invite an awareness of the sacred. As a physician champion begin to look for the places of invitation.