Wayfarers in White Coats: Navigating a Paradigm Shift in Medical Education for Holistic Patient Care
Alissa Arango, MS, Duke Divinity School and Duke University, School of Medicine, Durham, NC
In the intricate tapestry of healthcare, the role of a medical student is often confined to the realm of pathology and clinical procedures. However, drawing on the work of Thomas Aquinas, there is a place for a paradigm shift—a call for medical students to embrace the identity of a wayfarer in their accompaniment of patients.
Much like wayfarers, medical students find themselves displaced from familiar terrain, away from home, in new cities, challenged to care for unique populations. Likewise, they find themselves estranged from textbooks and lecture halls when they enter the realm of patient care. Instead of merely treating symptoms, medical students have the unique opportunity to journey alongside patients. By accepting the role of fellow wayfarer, students can simultaneously guide patients through the labyrinth of illness and the complex US healthcare system while also learning the basics of disease characteristics and management. Medical students can assist patients in understanding and accepting their ailments, embarking with patients toward a shared destination that transcends the physical—the journey home to God.
The practice of wayfaring, neither named nor acknowledged as formal teaching, is inherent in the job of a medical student. By taking advantage of the abundance of time often allotted to medical learners, students should be encouraged to go beyond diagnosing ailments and delve into the intricacies of an individual's narrative. Embracing this intimate exploration, medical students can properly honor a patient’s collective story to best advocate for them when collaborating with the larger medical team. As Dr. Warren Kinghorn states in ‘I Am Still With You’: Dementia and the Christian Wayfarer, patients are also wayfarers. This understanding challenges dehumanizing practices that have become standard practice in medicine today. Kinghorn argues that patients should be treated with dignity and deserve hospitality. While this notion is theoretically understood, it is not often practiced. Medical students develop into physicians who are unable to acknowledge dignity and hospitality if brewed in a culture that is absent of those practices. By incorporating and accepting the role of wayfaring in medical education, medical students can begin to understand what it means to maintain patient dignity, practicing the art of hospitality as they walk alongside patients, ensuring that their pathology does not subsume their identity.
In the conventional medical approach, pathology often precedes a person's essence, the person beneath the symptoms. The challenge lies in reframing the perspective—seeing the wayfarer first and the patient second. By adopting this mindset, medical students can transcend the boundaries of clinical detachment, becoming compassionate companions on the journey toward healing.
By accepting patients and themselves as wayfarers on a mutual journey, medical students attend to patients not merely as cases to be solved but as fellow travelers navigating the complexities of life and health. In doing so, they offer a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between medical expertise and human connection. This paper will aim to explore the role of the wayfarer as taught by Thomas Aquinas and explored by Dr. Warren Kinghorn’s scholarly work toward establishing a practice of wayfaring within medical education. This paper will also present a personal account of practicing wayfaring as a medical student and as part of a patient navigator program. Ultimately, this paper aims to demonstrate that by embracing the role of a wayfarer, medical students have the potential to play a pivotal role in transforming healthcare into a more holistic and compassionate practice that honors an individual's narrative and ensures that the journey toward well-being is not just medically guided but personally accompanied.
Much like wayfarers, medical students find themselves displaced from familiar terrain, away from home, in new cities, challenged to care for unique populations. Likewise, they find themselves estranged from textbooks and lecture halls when they enter the realm of patient care. Instead of merely treating symptoms, medical students have the unique opportunity to journey alongside patients. By accepting the role of fellow wayfarer, students can simultaneously guide patients through the labyrinth of illness and the complex US healthcare system while also learning the basics of disease characteristics and management. Medical students can assist patients in understanding and accepting their ailments, embarking with patients toward a shared destination that transcends the physical—the journey home to God.
The practice of wayfaring, neither named nor acknowledged as formal teaching, is inherent in the job of a medical student. By taking advantage of the abundance of time often allotted to medical learners, students should be encouraged to go beyond diagnosing ailments and delve into the intricacies of an individual's narrative. Embracing this intimate exploration, medical students can properly honor a patient’s collective story to best advocate for them when collaborating with the larger medical team. As Dr. Warren Kinghorn states in ‘I Am Still With You’: Dementia and the Christian Wayfarer, patients are also wayfarers. This understanding challenges dehumanizing practices that have become standard practice in medicine today. Kinghorn argues that patients should be treated with dignity and deserve hospitality. While this notion is theoretically understood, it is not often practiced. Medical students develop into physicians who are unable to acknowledge dignity and hospitality if brewed in a culture that is absent of those practices. By incorporating and accepting the role of wayfaring in medical education, medical students can begin to understand what it means to maintain patient dignity, practicing the art of hospitality as they walk alongside patients, ensuring that their pathology does not subsume their identity.
In the conventional medical approach, pathology often precedes a person's essence, the person beneath the symptoms. The challenge lies in reframing the perspective—seeing the wayfarer first and the patient second. By adopting this mindset, medical students can transcend the boundaries of clinical detachment, becoming compassionate companions on the journey toward healing.
By accepting patients and themselves as wayfarers on a mutual journey, medical students attend to patients not merely as cases to be solved but as fellow travelers navigating the complexities of life and health. In doing so, they offer a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between medical expertise and human connection. This paper will aim to explore the role of the wayfarer as taught by Thomas Aquinas and explored by Dr. Warren Kinghorn’s scholarly work toward establishing a practice of wayfaring within medical education. This paper will also present a personal account of practicing wayfaring as a medical student and as part of a patient navigator program. Ultimately, this paper aims to demonstrate that by embracing the role of a wayfarer, medical students have the potential to play a pivotal role in transforming healthcare into a more holistic and compassionate practice that honors an individual's narrative and ensures that the journey toward well-being is not just medically guided but personally accompanied.