Samantha Siegel: There is value in just being there with people, that is medicine too

Samantha Siegel, Physician at the Permanente Medical Group, shared a post on LinkedIn:

”The abandonment of advanced cancer.

Many of my friends with advanced cancer have described feeling abandoned by parts of their medical team as their disease progressed.

I’ve reflected on this a lot. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again: I believe most people arrive in the field of medicine with good intentions, wanting to help. Sometimes we just don’t know how to show up. We’re not trained for that work and most are bound by the constraints of the system that they work within.

The result is that when patients need us the most and they’ve progressed on all of the allopathic therapy that we have to offer, we send them to another member of the team who can handle ‘that part.’

I see longitudinal cancer survivorship as yet another solution to this, in addition to the incredible work already being done by palliative care clinicians. Even when there are no procedures left to do or pharmaceuticals to prescribe, we can always witness and support. We don’t have to pull away.

There is value in just being there with people. That is medicine too.

I believe it is our duty as healers to help patients and their families transition in that time. I believe it is our duty to practice with AWE. (check out my post about the AWE philosophy)

The dying is just another part of the living.”

Source: Samantha Siegel/LinkedIn