the healer’s journey

Students of Medicine take an arduous journey that reflects the path of their fellow humans for whom they vow to provide care. A voyage of transformation on every level, the changes they undergo reflect a deep engagement with the science, art and responsibilities of being present to and caring for aging, illness, and death, while also caring for themselves.

The Healer’s Journey is a film that will follow the path of the medical student, the physician in training and the practicing physician through critical experiences of training and medical practice over the course of four years. The arc of this journey begins with idealism and great expectations, in large part motivated by the potential good envisioned in their future life’s work, by the meaning that it may bring to them, and by the challenges of a career of serving the uncertainties experienced by placing their work at the center of the processes of aging, illness, and death. 

Preparation before medical school begins with a descent into the salt mines of the basic sciences- the foundation of medicine- while many simultaneously engage with humanity through community activities, volunteer work, and other undertakings. These demonstrate not only their drive and commitment, but also expose them to a wide range of human experiences, building character and helping them to recognize the complexities of the world and carry that recognition with them as they begin to learn to work at the crossroads of human frailty, illness, and suffering. Paradoxically, although armed with idealism, intellectual acuity, and determination, this pre-professional training has unexpected effects on them.

Nevertheless, as they begin their formal medical education, they hope that the nascent seeds of healthy professionalism will grow.  Through the formal curriculum-the educational mission and vision designed and transmitted in the classroom and clinical settings, they look forward to being able to join their predecessors in taking one of the oldest formal professional commitments, the Hippocratic Oath. A testament to their fitness for the rigors of medicine, medical students at the onset of their education are in better health and more resilient than their contemporaries who are not in medicine.

In the ensuing four years, their training continues through encounters with the intersection of the complex worlds of science, human behavior, social, political and economic systems. They experience the formal curriculum of the basic sciences, anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology and therapeutics. Human behavior, psychology, sociology and epidemiology are integrated within this curriculum, while they simultaneously experience their first encounters with real patients suffering from real illness.

Encountered within the formal curriculum, as they immerse themselves into the world of medicine, are powerful informal and hidden forces that are present from the moment they step into the classroom and will continue throughout their careers. These forces, referred to as the hidden curriculum, exert their influence through the tacit structures within medical education and health care institutions.  They include the influence of their mentors and peers, from whom they learn interpersonal skills in the medical environment, witnessing experiences of great courage and sacrifice as well as the effects of distancing and adaptive and maladaptive responses to being in the midst of pain, uncertainty, unexpected and sometimes unacceptable outcomes. They experience vicarious trauma as real human suffering is met in all its gritty relief.  At the same time personal economic imperatives created by mounting educational debt, aging, and their desire for their lives to broaden beyond their careers add to the complex learning and working environments. Their preparation has been invaluable, yet their overall health and well-being can suffer, many of them arriving at the end of these four years worse off than their contemporaries.

The changes occurring over these four short years accelerate during their residency education, as they take on greater degrees of responsibility for direct patient care, making challenging decisions on a daily basis, and working with the consequences of those decisions. Referred to as the “practice of medicine,” this growth and learning never truly ends, continuing into their post-residency careers. Finally, these individuals- the medical student, resident, and practicing physician, at some point or another, receive care from their colleagues, who are the products of the same professional formation that they experienced. The outcome as a health professional depends on the primary forces of the formal curriculum and the hidden curriculum, and how they interact with the individuals at each and every level of their career.
Underneath what most would characterize as a radical transformation that occurs in this medical education process, there remains those parts of the individual that are carried from early on into the noble profession. For some, bolstered by their education and training, these parts remain strong and evident in their lives- at work and at home. For others, some parts may seem distant, but remain accessible, and endure, ready to burst forth, if given the right conditions.