Summary of Danielle Ofri's What Doctors Feel

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 I was a volunteer rape crisis counselor at Bellevue Hospital. I was assigned to a Hispanic teenager who needed to fill out forms with a nurse. I was terrified of what I would see if I looked at the patient, but I had to.#2 I was assigned to care for a patient who had just been raped. I was terrified, but knew I had to help her. I was shocked at how the nurse s aide helped the patient, and how much I needed to learn about medicine.#3 Empathy is the ability to see and feel from another person s perspective. It is a prerequisite for compassion, and it is difficult for doctors to fake. It is most difficult when the suffering doesn t make sense to the doctor, when the patient has an ulterior motive, or when the disease is self-inflicted.#4 Doctors, just like everyone else, can be repulsed by the nonmedical things they find repulsive. It takes a lot of self-control to overcome these reactions, and some people can do it effortlessly.