The upshot of the article is that a person's success as a doctor is strongly related to their ability to relate well with a wide variety of people. Technical mastery is simply not sufficient.
It strikes me that this is true for for professionals in all fields and is a value at the heart of the ministry of GFM. We GFM staff cannot offer much to our students in terms of the content of their studies, but we offer a lot in terms of spiritual and character formation, building multi-ethnic and cross disciplinary communities, and a perspective of life lived in light of the reign of God which contributes to their success in their work and all of life.
Yesterday I read Luke 18:9-19:10 which includes five stories of unlikely people receiving God's favor (a tax collector, children, the poor, a beggar, and another tax collector!). Even Jesus' disciples were surprised that the children, the beggar and Zacchaeus were received and the rich man was not, but one common factor in all those who were welcomed by Jesus is that they were humble. They did not rely on their status, wealth or power like the rich man did.
The NY Times article says that it's important for doctors to be able to really listen to nurses and patients, being open to learn and careful to communicate well. That's a product of humility which as Christians is a quality we are shown is critical for those who wish to relate to God. May our ministry create environments in all the professional and graduate schools where we nurture both educational excellence and the human qualities of humility, gentleness and love so that students move on to embrace both realities in their lives.
Great post! I think that an appropriate focus for professional school training should lead us to consider the care-seeker's well-being, a criterion which leaves room for human or even spiritual considerations as well as the technical ones. It's all too easy for fields to specialize in their goals as well as their methodologies... For example, I think it's a problem if doctors think that their end lies in working a medical miracle or if pastors think theirs in being a good listener, because those are in fact the means by which we work in hope of someone's well-being. I guess, I'd like to de-specialize our professional goals, while of course still encouraging people to excel in their professional techniques, because it leaves room for addressing the variability in people's actual needs. One medical patient needs surgery, while another needs compassionate advice on how to live their last days most comfortably. One parishioner might need counseling in the more secular psychological methodology, whereas another might need to be challenged with a Bible verse. If professional schools are training us to care for our people's well-being, we ought to be able to meet them in either of these needs.
ReplyDeleteSo true Bill... the Beatitudes have been relegated to an afterthought in the evangelical world but are still very much alive in the eastern church. Their centrality (Jesus started His preaching ministry with them) in the ancient church has been replaced by a legal/forensic emphasis in the west that did not exist in the ancient faith (Jude 1:3). Peace, Sacha
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