Communication the Cleveland Clinic Way: How to Drive a Relationship-Centered Strategy for Exceptional Patient Experience

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The Awesome Power of Vulnerability

When you are the physician in the room, you fill the space, but as a husband, you are simply half of a patient.

—ANESTHESIOLOGY RESIDENT DESCRIBING GOING TO OB APPOINTMENTS WITH HIS WIFE

It is difficult for those who have worked so hard at perfecting their medical knowledge to reflect on the fact that they are not perfect at something—people who may be the only one in their families to become a doctor, who are following in their parent’s footsteps, who spent 16 years training for the moment when they are ultimately responsible for a patient. Acknowledging that they may not be great at something goes against their grain. And if we look to history, at times, keeping patients ...