The Attending Physician, A Narrative Interpretation

The accompanying illustration captures the simultaneous responsibilities that compete for an attending physician's focus. This reflects a point in time where the most attention is given to Patient’s Interests, Teaching Moments, and Well-being. The less emphasized responsibilities are, however, still present and not forgotten. 

Patient’s Interests and Teaching Moments are not only displayed in the largest font but also are placed centrally to emphasize their importance. The deep red color reflects vitality and the heart of the attending physician’s commitments.

Well-being located both centrally and near the bottom reflects its involvement as the base or foundation for all activities.  Without a thriving well-being component, the entire structure of responsibilities could crumble. The other colors: orange, blue and purple are supporting to the deep red.  They add context and content. Some might describe these as background music.

The attending physician likely realizes that he/she is juggling many roles and tasks, though may not realize their magnitude. It is possible that the overwhelming heaviness of so many roles is altering deep concentration by its pushing and pulling within the mind’s consciousness. 

The importance of intentionally living in the present moment and focusing on one responsibility drives my approach to navigating this sea of callings.  Scientific evidence tells us that efficiency and accuracy improve for individual tasks as compared with multi-tasking. If learners on the team have questions focused on general medical disease processes (give us a chalk talk on glomerulonephritis, for example) and simultaneously a patient’s spouse has arrived to discuss the patient’s terminal diagnosis and anticipated next steps, a choice of how to direct one’s time must be made.  The teaching session can wait (to receive your full attention).  Now is the time to speak with the patient’s spouse.

I hope that reading and reflecting on this piece will help others to be intentional in prioritizing and allocating time and energy and to consider creating their own visual display  tool.