After all, we learn by example and from those who are senior to us. But I can't blame them. In Aequanimitas, Sir William Osler wrote about the importance of keeping some distance between physician and patient so the physician can remain level headed in times of crisis. And it is this part of equanimity that I cannot agree with and hope never to develop in my career as a doctor. On the other hand, I know that if I become involved with the tragedy in every patient's case, I will become too emotionally and psychologically drained to do anything useful.
Medical school seems an unlikely place to confront the past.
We are so focused on the latest technique, the most recent article, the newest equipment that the present quickly supersedes the past. The present displaces the past, that is, until one enters the VA hospital. In December of 1944, with the Allies gaining ground in the west and the Soviets pushing east, Hitler launched an attack to retake Antwerp. Nazi infantry divisions massed in the Ardennes forest and attacked five divisions of the U.S. 1st Army. J was caught in the first attack.