HJBR Nov/Dec 2019

50 NOV / DEC 2019 I  Healthcare Journal of Baton Rouge dialogue column Consultant’S CORNER As we enter the holiday season, regard- less of your personal faith-life, this is a short, but impactful few days each year when hope and cheer supersede cynicism and fear. Many years ago, I was sent a wedding invitation with a note at the bottom in italics that read, “The only gift we request, and will treasure forever, is your presence.” Presence is, per- haps, the most priceless bauble you can give anyone, and as we end this calendar year in reflection, and look toward a new year with resolve to do better, nobler, and higher things, we should contemplate the power of presence. Have you ever arrived at a destination and thought to yourself, “How did I get here? I don’t remember a thing.” Psychologists call this the narrative experience. The narrative experience is how we function on autopilot. Our brain depends on our past experience, the heuristics and algorithms of our knowl- edge base, and the patterns of human behav- ior to accomplish the activities of daily living. Alternatively, we can function in the direct experience. The direct experience is where we are fully submerged into the present, and our awareness is heightened to everything going on around us; all of our senses are engaged and we respond in real-time to people and events. We are present. It should come as no surprise that indi- viduals who function in the direct experience maximize reimbursement by identifying al- lowable charges, deftly memorializing care, treatment, and services in the record of care, and proactively navigate patients to other medically necessary healthcare services. In- dividuals who rely on the direct experience minimize costs by stewarding finite resources and delivering efficient and effective person- centric care. Moreover, individuals who are present, functioning in the direct experience, mitigate risk with ease as they are tuned in to their environment, tethered to their patients, and mindful of cause and effect. But most We learn from our first day of work in healthcare how to detach, how to compartmentalize, and how to segregate life. Day in and day out, we see people at their lowest points in life, sick and wounded, and in need of help. This can be over- whelming and incredibly taxing. To avoid transference and to prevent assuming the burden of another’s pain, we hold our patients, and the narrative that brought them to us, at a safe arm’s length. We create a buffer. We separate ourselves from the patient and their problems, and our own life and the care we provide. The Best Present: Your Presence Being Resilient to #LoveAnyway