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Published on: 3/30/2001
Last Visited: 8/18/2001
Scott Stoll , a 30-year-old medical student at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver , is doing his best to learn the art of compassion.He enrolled in a course on illness at the university , read the Book of Job , read numerous essays about suffering , and twice a week he puts aside his lab coat and stethoscope to spend time with Rev. Jim Lewis , a chaplain at Denver's University Hospital.Stoll believes these things have helped teach him how to approach patients with more humility..He says , Medical school has its own rules.You are rewarded for having the right answers , for efficiency , for getting the work done , not for spending time with a patient or being compassionate.Some of my classmates actually felt as though they were looked down on if they showed compassion..Fortunately , attitudes about caring are changing , and so are requirements in some of the nation's medical schools.Some are adding rounds at hospices , incorporating classic works of fiction and nonfiction into ethics courses , adding seminars on death and dying , and pairing students with the dying--not to treat just as patients but to understand them as people ( Commercial Appeal , Memphis , 5/26/99 , gomemphis.com ).Say : If the nation's medical schools realize the need for active compassion , how much more should we.Today's study will challenge us to Focus on Compassion as we see Jesus not only feel compassion , but demonstrate it with actions.