When I met with our new HPM Fellows, we also read and discussed Rachel Naomi Remen’s piece “Helping, Fixing, or Serving.” If you haven’t read it before, I highly recommend it: it’s a nice, short reflection on service and human connection.

We also talked about how there’s a role for each, and that perhaps they should be fluid roles that shift and change depending on what our patients need. Sometimes out patients really just need their broken bone fixed, other times they need a genuine connection to help explore something tough or terrifying.

But how do we know what our patients need? There’s no sign outside the room. “Fixing needed now” or “desperately seeking human connection.” We figured out that maybe the best way forward is to never presume you know what your patients need. Instead, sit down and talk – human to human. Get to know your patients better, figure out what they need in the moment and tailor your role to meet that need. Then maybe we can move from helping, fixing, or serving to helping, fixing, and serving depending on what our patients need most in the moment.