{"id":6820,"date":"2013-05-22T16:38:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T20:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=3857"},"modified":"2013-05-22T16:38:25","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T20:38:25","slug":"relationship-is-everything-med-grads-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2013\/05\/22\/relationship-is-everything-med-grads-told\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRelationship Is Everything\u201d MED Grads Told"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors urged to use \u201cprivilege and power\u201d in best possible way <\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jessie
Jessie Gaeta, medical director of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program\u2019s Barbara McInnis House, addressed graduates at the School of Medicine\u2019s Convocation Saturday morning. Photo by Frank Curran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

A doctor\u2019s relationship with a patient is the basis of all healing, physician Jessie Gaeta reminded a sea of newly minted doctors at the School of Medicine Convocation, held at Agganis Arena Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Currently medical director of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program\u2019s Barbara McInnis House,<\/a> Gaeta has spent her career working with patients who live in poverty, and as a result, are often chronically ill. She told the MED graduates that they are likely to work with patients with similar issues throughout their careers and urged them to passionately connect with them to build lasting relationships.<\/p>\n

Doctors must first recognize the \u201cstructural inequities\u201d that influence health, so they can diagnose appropriately, said Gaeta. \u201cThen, ask yourself, how can I, with privilege and power, impact those underlying factors?\u2026Never lose sight of the fact that what you are doing in the lab translates directly to a suffering person\u2014let that guide you in the design and implementation of your research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaeta, currently a BU Advocacy Training Program<\/a> core faculty member, was recently named a MED assistant professor of medicine. She earned a medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Boston Medical Center, where she was appointed chief resident of internal medicine in 2001. She became a physician advocacy fellow at Columbia University\u2019s Institute on Medicine as a Profession<\/a> in 2005. There, she cofounded Home & Healthy for Good<\/a>, a Massachusetts-based advocacy program that finds permanent housing for the chronically homeless and then treats their illnesses. In 2009, Gaeta was named medical director of the Barbara McInnis House, a 104-bed medical facility that provides respite care to homeless people who are too ill to stay in shelters, but not sick enough to remain hospitalized. She won the Quincy Interfaith Sheltering Coalition\u2019s 2004 Community Hero award and was named BU Medical Center\u2019s department of medicine Teacher of the Year in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am still in awe of the privilege and power we doctors are afforded, even though many years have passed since I sat where you are sitting today,\u201d Gaeta told members of the Class of 2013. \u201cAnd knowing you as I do, I know you\u2019ll use that privilege and power in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cited her own work over the years with a homeless patient she pseudonymously called \u201cLisa\u201d as an example of a doctor\u2019s privilege in providing care to the homeless. She first met Lisa in a Boston homeless shelter and soon became her primary care physician, often helping her deal with her emphysema. But Lisa also faced extreme poverty, had no family, and was constantly anxious.<\/p>\n

As the two women developed a trusting relationship, Gaeta realized that Lisa needed the safety and stability of a home if she was going to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing was always her \u2018self-management goal,\u2019 and eventually I came to see it as the most important prescription I could write for her,\u201d Gaeta told the graduates. \u201cI started working with the shelter administration to prioritize her for housing, making the medical case for it, recounting her hospitals stays, and attesting that she would, indeed, be safe in housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Gaeta\u2019s help, Lisa moved to a modest double-decker in Quincy. Her emphysema went into remission, her confidence increased, and doctors were able to give her routine checkups. When Lisa was later diagnosed with cancer, the fact that she was able to recover in her home made a huge difference, Gaeta recounted, adding that today, Lisa has a community of friends and occasionally testifies before lawmakers about the resources necessary for the homeless.<\/p>\n

Gaeta chose to recount Lisa\u2019s story, she said, because it proved to be a turning point in her career. Lisa taught her that a trusting relationship was the foundation for all the healing that followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when the \u2018doing\u2019 implied in providing care will leave you wanting at the bedside\u2014because there is no cure, or because there is a cure but it is no match for the despair of the living conditions that the patient endures, or because no medicine will ease the suffering of the patient,\u201d she said. \u201cYet you still have something healing to offer your patient: the fact that you are their doctor, all of the time, and the constancy of your relationship with them gives them a connection, a validation, and support that they might not have from anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaeta urged the graduates to step outside the comfort zone of their individual clinical or scientific field of interest. \u201cBear witness to injustices that result in poor health, and work to remove those injustices and build health equity,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is what healers owe society. And this is what our society desperately needs at this moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As degrees were conferred on the Class of 2013\u2019s 222 graduates<\/a>, cheers filled the arena as some of the new doctors brought their young children on stage when they received their diplomas. The three-hour ceremony concluded with the Oath of the Scientist, read by Linda Hyman, associate provost for MED\u2019s Division of Graduate Medical Sciences, and the Oath of Hippocrates, delivered by Karen Antman<\/a>, provost of the Medical Campus and dean of the School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

Read more about Commencement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This BU Today<\/em> story was written by Amy Laskowski.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctors urged to use \u201cprivilege and power\u201d in best possible way   A doctor\u2019s relationship with a patient is the basis of all healing, physician Jessie Gaeta reminded a sea of newly minted doctors at the School of Medicine Convocation, held at Agganis Arena Saturday morning. Currently medical director of the Boston Health Care for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}