“As Comforting as a Rodeo Clown”: When Competence Is at Odds with Bedside Manner

Then it comes to me. This is the same recovery nurse who brought our son out of anesthesia when he had ear tube surgery. This is the woman who jostled him in her arms like she was mixing pancake batter in a Tupperware container, who insisted “baby need stimulus,” dancing away from me as Luke reached and screamed.

That’s from the Reflections essay in our February issue, and is written by a patient who tells a funny (and insightful) story of finding himself dependent for a second time on a nurse and doctor he’d sworn to himself he’d never let near him again. So, does it help to hear the patient perspective sometimes? (For the best reading experience, click through to the PDF version.)