First Patient, Last Patient: Practicing Medicine Mindfully

The medical profession has evolved into a complicated network of industries. Within the data and the technology, is some of the human interaction lost?First Patient, Last Patient (Practicing Medicine Mindfully) explores the personal aspects of medicine-the empathy, attention to detail, and careful listening that make a medical visit worthwhile. Everything-the smile, the greeting, the kindness-affects that experience. This book is for the people responsible for that experience and hopes to reinvigorate their capacity to do this hard work.The chapters are brief. The style is light. Anecdotes clarify the ideas. It takes on the practice of medicine from different angles, with the principle of mindfulness-full awareness of the present moment-at the center of it all.The practice of medicine began thousands of years ago. Some things have changed, others haven’t. People, those who receive the care, those who give it, still matter most. Practicing medicine mindfully is about them.