Goodbye: an immigration story

In medical school, we learn about the pathophysiology of diseases. We learn the best test to order and the best medication for treatment. But we are not taught how to treat our patients' stories, the social factors that make it impossible for them to pay for that medication or get to the appoin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ) 2019-03, Vol.191 (9), p.E261-E262
Main Author: Stumbar, Sarah E., MD MPH
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Attitude to Health
College faculty
Emigrants and Immigrants - psychology
Emigration and immigration
Family medicine
Family physicians
Family Relations - psychology
Female
Health disparities
Health Status
Honduras
Hospitals
Human rights
Humanities
Humans
Hypertension
Immigration policy
Internal Medicine
Medical schools
Medical tests
Noncitizens
Pathological physiology
Patients
Pharmacy
Physician patient relationships
Physicians
Quality of Life - psychology
Social aspects
Stumbar, Sarah E
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Summary:In medical school, we learn about the pathophysiology of diseases. We learn the best test to order and the best medication for treatment. But we are not taught how to treat our patients' stories, the social factors that make it impossible for them to pay for that medication or get to the appointment for that diagnostic test. As a family medicine doctor, I am privileged to seek out these stories, to look for the complex and interwoven contexts in which my patients live. After I listen, I am left with the shared burden of trying to help my patients navigate these social factors - access to housing, medical insurance, documented immigration status - that so define their health. I embrace their stories, and there are many of them that I could tell. But today I write to a patient who came to the United States looking for opportunity, and then left, pushed away by a country that did not care about her. I want her to know I cared.
ISSN:0820-3946
1488-2329
DOI:10.1503/cmaj.180933