Healers : extraordinary clinicians at work /

Using interviews with practicing clinicians whom colleagues and patients deemed "extraordinary," Schenck and Churchill (both, Vanderbilt Univ.) illuminate the clinical and personal practices sustaining physicians' humanity amid contemporary medicine's constant focus on productivity. They explore several angles of physician-patient interactions including the rituals of practice and interaction, and basics like the importance of physical posture in patients' hospital and clinic rooms. The authors illustrate how spirituality helps physicians cope with their own limitations and find the emotional resources to deal with the demands of patient care. The ideas in this book are not revolutionary, but the detailed interviews provide helpful information about the practices of excellence, making the authors' premises more convincing. The book powerfully shows how physicians' spiritual and physical dispositions contribute a great deal to the care they provide, showing the inseparability of personhood and excellence. Practitioners will find this a useful refresher about the things that really matter. Medical students and undergraduates who hope to be physicians will learn what they must do to become excellent practitioners. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. A. W. Klink Duke University