Stewarding the Vulnerable Moments (with Dr. Audrey Shafer)

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is it like to comfort patients in the moments before they surrender consciousness to undergo surgery? What can the humanities teach us about being present for a patient when they are at their most vulnerable? As an anesthesiologist and founding director of Medicine and the Muse, Stanford Medicine’s health humanities program, Dr. Audrey Shafer has spent her career pondering and addressing these questions. In this episode, Dr. Shafer discusses how her exploits in the humanities have shaped her career in medicine, gives us an intimate and vivid picture of the vital work anesthesiologists do, and shares what her recent personal experiences with cancer have taught her about what it means to truly care for patients.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How growing up in an artistic household initially pushed Dr. Shafer away from the arts and toward a medical career - 1:51
Why Dr. Shafer chose to become an anesthesiologist - 5:51
Dr. Shafer’s discovery of the medical humanities and how she would later create the first program of its type at Stanford Medicine - 8:57
A discussion of what the medical humanities are and a defense of its value - 12:00
Reflections on the profound privilege of being an anesthesiologist and a medical educator - 17:45
A behind-the-scenes look at an anesthesiologist’s work - 25:02
Dr. Shafer’s recent cancer diagnosis and her treatment journey - 34:29
Advice for clinicians and medical students about seeing patients’ illnesses within the greater context of their lives - 41:15

Follow Dr. Shafer on Twitter @AudreyShafer.

You can peruse the Literature Arts & Medicine magazine here.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.4	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:04.8	And you're listening to the Doctors' Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.9	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.2	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?
0:23.1	What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare,
0:33.1	from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives, those who have collected a career's worth of harder and wisdom.
0:40.2	Proving the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking,
0:45.6	amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.3	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.9	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.
1:00.1	The moments just before and after surgery can be some of the most harrowing and uncertain experiences in a patient's life.
1:10.1	During surgery, patients surrender their bodies to the anesthesiologist, who takes over control of core bodily functions like breathing and blood circulation.
1:19.8	What does it like to accompany patients during these moments?
1:23.3	Joining us to discuss this is Dr. Audrey Schaefer, professor of anesthesiology at Stanford Medicine.
1:29.9	A poet and novelist, Dr. Schaefer was also for nearly 20 years, the founding director of medicine and the muse,
1:36.8	the Medical Humanities Program at Stanford.
1:39.6	In this episode, she shares how her exploits in the humanities have shaped her career in medicine
1:44.6	and how she finds meaning by guiding patients when they are at their most vulnerable.
1:48.6	Audrey, welcome to the show and thanks for being here.
	...

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