Takeaway
Our words and actions, rooted in kindness, are powerful tools for healing. We can use them to mend what is broken in patients, colleagues, and ourselves.
Creative Arts in Medicine | June 26, 2025 | 1 min read
By David Kopacz, MD, University of Washington
Touching the wound with words and hands
It is easy to see
as a physician
How broken and injured
people can be.
And, it is easy to see
as a human being
How broken and wounded
Our world has become.
Is it strength that we need
and isolation – threatening and sequestering others?
Or is it healing
and togetherness this time requires?
Brokenness without
Brokeness within
How do we keep
going and going
and going?
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Traumatization,
Vicarious Traumatization –
All words to describe our brokenness.
Some people try to take
Away the words of other people
In medicine we are always coming up with new words to describe
Brokenness.
With broken eyes
And broken hearts
the world fragments,
we fragment.
One person touches another,
with hands or words
seeks to bridge the edges of the wound
seeks to span the distance between self & other
Is it enough?
Rilke might say so
Virchow, too,
Galen, Hippocrates, Asklepios,
Victoria Sweet, Rana Awdish,
Healers all, might say
“Use your hands to touch the wound, whatever it may be.
Use your words to mend what is broken.
For people and societies made of people,
Kindness and Caring
Is what the world needs
Now.”
I wrote this poem as I am leaving the VA after 11.5 years, saying goodbye to patients and colleagues, and reflecting on the suffering and worries of both staff and veterans.
As healthcare professionals, we already have high rates of burnout and those that are also federal employees face political interference with our work. A lot of healing is in our hands and how we touch wounds, but our words can also heal or hurt.
To counter moral injury and demoralization, we must have hope and remember the healing tradition in medicine, honoring our ancestors as well as those who uphold the timeless values of caring and healing.
Read more about the author on his website.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.