A note on professional self-respect.
To be a healthcare provider is not a role I take lightly. However, in my intentions of benevolence (a pillar of healthcare oaths) I believe I have, a few times, crossed the line.
What has attracted me to the field of physical therapy (my own proneness to injury) has become the primary obstacle of my work. The most recent of those injuries, as many of you know, was fracturing my right forearm in a bike accident.
Surgical recovery is never fully known until post-op. My fracture was worse than the x-rays revealed and therefore my recovery will be as well.
That’s resulted in me being much less able to communicate with patients about my expected return to work and the state of your rehabilitative journeys.
_________________________________________________
For the vast majority of time that we engage in the patient-provider relationship I will be on the giving end. However, in these (hopefully) brief and infrequent circumstances, this balance tips a bit the other direction.
I need some patience while I try to look out for myself a bit of the way I do for all of my patients.
It was to my greatest sadness that a few people responded with much of the opposite. There were what felt like indignant responses to the tune of “but you’re supposed to be helping me” as well as asking for end-of-day invoices (while acknowledging my surgery…the same day as my surgery).
What I’ve come to realize is that our patient-provider relationship cannot exist without a mutual respect. It is much more reciprocal than I often realize. I have inappropriately interpreted my oath as a physical therapist to mean I should not and could not deny services to patients for anything less than an abusive incident.
With this notice, I will be terminating services with a handful of current patients. This is the only way I understand how to respect myself, my work, and all the rest of my patients.
From here forwards, this will remain to be a foundational principle of my business.
Benevolence, and my commitment to it, means to do no harm - shouldn’t that also apply to myself?
