Samantha Siegel: I call it the AWE philosophy

Samantha Siegel, Physician at The Permanente Medical Group, shared on LinkedIn:

“AWE

I recently developed this acronym to describe the ideal heartset of cancer survivorship medicine.

I call it the AWE philosophy:
A-ccept ownership of our patients. No punting allowed. If we don’t know how to help, we will try and find someone who does. We will look up our patients’ questions. We will refer to colleagues who might know better than we do and then we will stay actively curious and engaged with the process, even if we aren’t the ones in charge of it.

W-holism: Survivorship is “whole person” and “whole systems” focused medicine. It’s not just about the kidney. The bowel. The breast. Or the blood. It’s about a whole human whose body is going through one of life’s most challenging obstacles and is in need of integration on multiple levels. It’s about the family system. Home and work environments. Community. Pasts, presents and futures. The legacies people wish to leave behind, regardless of whether their cancer can be cured. We will hold space for these ideas and concepts within the treatment plan.

E-goless: This is not about us. It’s about the patient and their loved ones. We will try to maintain awareness of our dispositions and energies, recognizing that the power dynamic rarely feels equal in cancer, even when a doctor is the patient. We will allow ourselves to learn from our patients, knowing that one day, we may become the patient.”

Source: Samantha Siegel/LinkedIn