The medical gaze as compassion and care

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Recommended: Importance of communication between physicians and patients

Does your head hurt, does your body ache, and how are your bowl movements? After a head to toe assessments, touching and prodding, the physician writes up a prescription and explains in a medical jargon the treatment plan. As the short consultation comes to a close, it’s wrapped up with the routine “Please schedule an appointment if there are no signs of improvement”. This specific experience often leaves the patient feeling the “medical gaze” of the physicians. Defined by good and good, the medical gaze is the physicians mentality of objectifying their patient to nothing more than a biological entity. Therefore it is believed that the medical gaze moves away from compassionate and empathetic care, thus leaving patients feeling disconnected from their physicians. In order to understand how the medical gaze has stemmed into patient care, I begin with observations of a Grand Round, lectures for the progress of continuing medical education of physicians. There are expectations of physicians to be informed of cutting edge medical procedures and biotechnology since it can result in a less aggressive and more efficient treatment plan of patients. As I witness the resident physician’s maturation of medical competence in during a Surgical Grand Round at UC Irvine Medical Center, it has shifted the paradigm of the medical gaze and explains how competence is a form of compassion and empathy in patient care. As I walked into the auditorium late, I noticed that audience was transfixed with their current preoccupation to notice anyone slipping in and out of the room. The first noticeable factor was the medical residence in white coats. Residences are doctors who had recently graduated from medical schools and are focused primarily on the... ... middle of paper ... .... However numbers are important, numbers makes statements and changes the course of biomedicine. The world of biomedicine changes at an extraordinary rate and being informed on the lasts discovery requires continues education. Nonetheless, it does not give leeway for physicians to avoid attempts to understand the patient’s perspective of their illness. There needs to be communication from both sides. Health is a combination of emotional and biological processes, joining up with a doctor to best suit the emotional needs is beneficial for both parties. The shared goal is for everyone to live a healthy and happy life. The Surgical Grand Rounds proves that the medical gaze is beneficial to becoming compassionate. The irony is that in order to provide the best quality of medical treatment, competence from the medical gaze leads to the outcome of compassion and care.

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