"The Wonder and the Mystery is a remarkable gathering of voices from the front lines of primary care. Speaking honestly, arguing passionately, and singing from the heart, these voices reflect on the power of healing, the many meanings of patient care, and the search for wholeness in health, health care, and life.
The book is a unique collection of personal reflections and ideas from the Annals of Family Medicine, a primary care research journal. Each article has some connection to primary care but, as a compilation, it covers a wide range of topics, from the deeply personal to professional and policy issues. Written by clinicians, researchers, and patients, the articles speak with a remarkable honesty, providing inspirational insights into health care and humanity. They shed light on the value of primary care not only as an approach to health care but also the unique and important role it plays in people's lives.
""The things we cannot measure may be the very things that will sustain us, that form the foundation of a life of service and deep fulfillment. Primary care is not just a work of science; primary care is a front row seat on life, a rare glimpse of the wonder and mystery present below the surface of the ordinary, invisible to the casual observer. We may all need to know a little less and wonder a little more."" Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, in her Foreword"
By:
Robin Gotler
Imprint: CRC Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 1st New edition
Dimensions:
Height: 152mm,
Width: 305mm,
Spine: 17mm
Weight: 635g
ISBN: 9781846199820
ISBN 10: 1846199824
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 31 March 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword. About the editor. List of contributors. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Section 1: Primary care at work. Nasruddin and the coin. One last question: opening Pandora's box? A headache at the end of the day. The joy of family practice. Success, regret, and the struggle for balance. The company we keep: why physicians should refuse to see pharmaceutical representatives. Doctors' work: eulogy for my vocation. Section 2: Patient care and caring. Pounds. The old duffers' club. Home care: a key to the future of family medicine? Boy scouts for Henry. Lessons from my left foot. Section 3: Wounds and healing. Suffering, meaning, and healing: challenges of contemporary medicine. Letting the news. Losing touch in the era of superbugs? The decade dance. The face of cancer. Section 4: Connections. A change will do you good. Linking Ruth to her past. On this day of mothers and sons. Jazz and the 'art' of medicine: improvisation in the medical encounter. Gazing at the future. Section 5: Knowledge. General medical practitioners need to be aware of the theories on which our work depend. The irreverent nature of evidence. Bag of worms. The impotence of being important - reflections on leadership. 'Be gentle and be sincere about it': a story about community-based primary care research. The dark bridal canopy. Making time to write? Section 6: Who we are and where we're going. A public celebration of a personal doctor. Health care becomes an industry. The dream of home ownership. The myth of the lone physician: towards a collaborative alternative. Dinosaurs, hospital ecosystems, and the future of family. Section 7: Medicine, society, the world. The island. Si, Doctora. Stuck in the mud. Indication. The break-even point: when medical advances are less important than improving the fidelity with which they are delivered. Ecological change and the future of the human species: can physicians make a difference? A journey to someplace better. Index.
Robin S. Gotler, MA, is Reflections Editor of the Annals of Family Medicine. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Sociology of Health and Disease from the College of St. Catherine and Master of Arts degrees in Bioethics (Case Western Reserve University) and History of Medicine (University of Minnesota). She has a passion for essays and memoir, nurtured by her studies of creative nonfiction with Carol Bly and Catherine Watson in the woods of northern Minnesota. Robin has been privileged to work in family medicine for 25 years and with the Annals of Family Medicine since its inception in 2002. She lives with her family in Minnesota, where wonder and mystery abound.
Reviews for The Wonder and the Mystery: 10 Years of Reflections from the Annals of Family Medicine
Primary care is not only a work of science, primary care is a front row seat on life, a rare glimpse of the wonder and mystery present below the surface of the ordinary. -From the Foreword by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
