Physicians as patients: a narrative patchwork

Centering Ourselves as Patients Suzanne Watters MD and Lindsay Zier-Vogel MA; The University of British Columbia Health Clinic and the Family Practice Centre British Columbia Women's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia February 18–September 2008

During medical training, a great deal of time is focused on being “patient centered,” but there is a dearth of instruction on how we can centre ourselves as patients. Yet, there is an inherent value in this perspective because when physicians become patients that experience may allow them to develop empathy and greater understanding for their patients. To fill this void in instruction, we decided to explore the physician-as-patient perspective and convey it through a quilt art installation.

We conducted interviews with Canadian physicians from 6 different regions across Canada, each of whom was at different stages in her or his career and was suffering from a different disease. We asked them to answer 3 questions: How did you feel when you were first diagnosed? How did someone or something in health care affect you in a positive way? How did you adapt to your health challenges?

Their responses were then integrated into patchwork squares, 24 of which was woven into 3 quilts, each one featuring the answers to 1 of the above questions. In addition to the 8 patchwork statements, each quilt has a centre pocket containing a small book with additional statements from the physicians.

Suzanne Watters and Lindsay Zier-Vogel, Centering Ourselves as Patients (2007). Cotton, handmade paper and bamboo. 90 × 75 cm. These 3 quilts depict the gamut of the physician-as-patient experience. The centre patch is a pocket containing a handmade-paper book with more observations from physicians. Image courtesy of S. Watters

These quilts are designed to convey the commonality of the illness experience and provide a narrative account of the physician–patient's personal experience. The quilt format brings together this eclectic content, allowing for the presentation of a patchwork of ideas that prompt the viewer to reflect on what it is like to be a patient, including the intense feelings and fears that many experience.

Most importantly, for the viewer, the quilts can be explored to varying degrees depending upon how much time the observer has to spend looking at the installation.

Suzanne Watters and Lindsay Zier-Vogel, Centering Ourselves as Patients (2007). Cotton, handmade paper and bamboo. 90 × 75 cm. This quilt-quotation was written in response to the question: “How did you adapt to your health challenges?” Image courtesy of S. Watters

The quotations in the first quilt reflect pride in being able to achieve physical goals while an illness is in remission, the patient's feeling of isolation when their illness separated them from their peers and the anger associated with miscommunication.

The second quilt's squares reveal the gratitude patients feel toward various members of the interdisciplinary team, from nurses to respiratory technicians to family physicians.

The squares in the third quilt reflect on the effect of illnesses on the function of these physicians with health challenges. It addresses the inability to balance physical pain with the demands of medicine and suggests that perhaps if physicians have health challenges, they enhance their ability to be “healers.”

These issues are all integral to the art and the science of medicine.