Curiosity—the cure for almost everything
Way back in 1998, I was at the doctor’s office with a UTI, and I was a medical student. I didn’t have a primary care doctor in the area—I was under a UVA health plan that covered me only in Charlottesville, but I was doing most of my rotations in Roanoke. So, I had driven about 30 minutes to the only urgent care in the area at that time. The doctor diagnosed me with a bladder infection. I asked for a relatively cheap, older medicine. She knew I was a medical student, and she said, “Haven’t you done microbiology? E. Coli is almost always resistant to that medication! No, we will give you Tequin”. I also knew that the doctor was only partially right. While the urine culture may show resistance, the drug I asked for was concentrated in the urine and could overcome the resistance. But, I didn’t say anything. She was the doctor, and I was just a med student. I took the prescription for Tequin. It made me dizzy and nauseated (and was taken off the market for problems with glucose levels a few years later). But that experience has stayed with me—it’s true, you do remember how someone made you feel.
To a certain extent, medical education trained doctors to be diagnosticians and fixers, teaching the technical side of medicine—like fixing a broken car. And yet, humans aren’t machines.
After I found coaching, I realized that while it is absolutely my responsibility to know the most I can about diseases and treatments, it’s also my responsibility to understand every patient’s unique circumstances; to honor their individuality while trying to fix things together.
Coaching is defined by the International Coach Federation as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” It assumes that clients are “creative, resourceful and whole.”
Coaching puts the client (in this case, the patient) in the driver’s seat. In that situation, it’s my job to ask the right questions so you can see things differently. In medicine, this process is called motivational interviewing, but coaching takes it a step further because it asks the coach to meet the patient where they are, help create moments of awareness, and let the potential unfold. There is very little teaching—it’s all about helping the patient find the best path for them.
Imagine how different that interaction would have been if the doctor had started off with curiosity, by asking, “So, you have a urinary tract infection. I know you are a medical student, and you probably have some thoughts about this. Is there a particular treatment that you feel may work best for you?”
