To Cure Sometimes, To Relieve
Often, To Comfort Always.
Sometimes to cure; often to help; always to comfort.
On the shores of Saranac Lake in northeastern New York, USA, is engraved the inscription of a Western physician named Trudeau: “To Cure Sometimes, To Relieve Often, To Help Always, To Comfort Always.” This inscription has been passed down through time and space for a long time and still shines today. Bu Fanyu, Hand Surgery Department, Wuxi Ninth People’s Hospital
For this inscription, some people say that it summarizes the work of medicine, explaining what medicine has done, what it can do and what it should do; others say that it tells people that the duty of doctors is not only to treat and cure, but also to help and comfort; others say that it shows doctors the social role of medicine in the future.
Medicine is oriented to people, and is a special study for taking care of people’s health and relieving their discomforts. In essence, medicine is for the sake of people and for the sake of people. In the past, the goal of medicine has been to help sick individuals, not human beings as a species. This inscription is a true reflection of the role of medicine, and it explains medicine from a different perspective, revealing its true meaning. To this day, many medical professionals still practice this motto, expressing medicine’s attachment to life.
”Sometimes, to heal; often, to help; always, to comfort.” It is both sacred and simple. To heal, to help, to comfort, for medicine and doctors, are six heavy words!
To “heal” requires a wealth of scientific knowledge and practical accumulation. “Cure” is “sometimes”, not infinitely, and it is very fine to grasp the proportion here. Medicine cannot cure all diseases and cannot cure every patient. And patients should not blindly believe in the “ability” of medicine and have unrealistic illusions about medicine. Even if a cure is achieved, the doctor should objectively assess its effectiveness. In fact, the vast majority of physicians strive for a high level of technical excellence and try to be a true “cure”. This is the human nature of medicine.
Giving assistance to patients is a regular act of medicine, and it is also a heavy task of medicine, whose social significance greatly exceeds that of “curing”. Beyond technology, doctors often have to use warmth to help patients. From ancient times to the present, all medical technology has been a help to people in distress. The role of medicine is only to help, not to exaggerate its “magic”. It is through the help of medicine that people can recover their health, maintain their health, and pass on their health.
Consolation is a kind of human transmission, an expression of emotion on the basis of equality. Consolation is also a responsibility of medicine, which is full of deep emotions and should never be done perfunctorily. How to learn to comfort patients and insist on comforting them frequently is a big subject, very much a matter of merit!
It can be said that this inscription makes it clear that medicine is a science full of humanism. By abstracting the humanistic nature of medicine, the essential attributes of medicine are abandoned.
Reference: 2007-10-30 Health News