Our modern healthcare system is all about rush – or delay. There is very little space for ongoing, nurturing care. Yet healing requires connection – and that takes time. So in this episode of Leading with Health I talk about what it means that we don’t allow time for caring in our healthcare system.
Here is the article I mention in the show: Is Your Doctor Treating You Like a Man?
Highlights include:
4:43 – JM: “We really don’t allow for a lot of time in healthcare. It’s all very quick – very quick to make a diagnosis. Quick to get a treatment. Quick to rush you home. And very little time for the ongoing nurturing and care that we so often need when we’re ill. Our system is not designed to consider that.”
8:10 – JM: “(After I had surgery for my bowel obstruction) I really needed to take some space and time and move away from the medical system to figure out what was best for me and figure out what I could do in terms of lifestyle changes and how I wanted to proceed.”
9:30 – JM: “I think there is no reason to choose between physical treatment and that kind of emotional care, but I feel we are often pressured to make a division there.”
10:39 – JM: “If we go back and find that little flicker of emotion and if we address what happened there, everything else falls into place.”
11:15 – JM: “We have these little flicker moments and, instead of stopping and comforting that part of us that just got upset, we skip right by it and then all we’re dealing with are the defensive postures we’ve developed to protect that feeling.”
13:10 – JM: “Healthcare is a place where so many of these little flicker moments happen, but no one is listening for them.”
14:20 – JM: “In our society in general, there is so much pressure to be instantaneous and to not listen internally.”
15:00 – JM: “I wonder what would happen if we weren’t distracted, if we weren’t rushed to go past those moments and if there was time to stay with it.”
15:53 – JM: “If we stop being distracted and go inside ourselves, we get our power back.”
18:14 – JM: “We need to fight for a system of care within healthcare.”
18:40 – JM: “We don’t need ‘more’ and ‘bigger’ and ‘new.’ What we really need is very different, especially in healthcare – it’s time and connection and love.”
Leading with Health is the podcast where women dive into societal change through the lens of healthcare. Host Jennifer Michelle has a Master’s in Public Health and Epidemiology and is a certified EMT. As President of Michelle Marketing Strategies, Jennifer specializes in healthcare marketing. Jennifer is available to speak at conferences and also provides free marketing consultations. Contact her here.
Photo by Mpho Mojapelo on Unsplash