A Clinical Choreography

Chinmayi Yathiraju, 2T7 PB

Artist’s Statement: I wrote this poem as an ode to the complexity and richness of a physician-patient interview, and the dynamic challenges that can arise during the interaction. In one of our first clinical skills sessions, our tutor noted that a patient encounter is like a carefully orchestrated dance. This imagery stuck with me, as I realized that a recital or performance has many parallels to a physician-patient interview. There are many elements that can be practiced and perfected, and yet, just as many unpredictable challenges that may arise that the artist must adeptly work through.

They say a patient encounter is a dance –

A delicate push and pull within a sequence of coordinated steps.

To which I wonder, what music is it set to?

Is it a rhythmic waltz or a volatile symphony?

What happens when a dancer stumbles,

Landing a pace off-beat, drifting apart from the melody?

Does her partner notice?

And when it does come to their notice that the story has lost its way,

The pattern erratic and flow disrupted,

Can the performance be saved?

For the elegance of such a dance blooms from the art of improvisation:

In holding silence for longer than the music may instruct,

In responding in time to subtle expressions,

In sharing space,

And guiding a meandering pirouette back into the focus of the spotlight.

This is a dance in which the performer is at once the audience,

Watching, interpreting, understanding.

For while it is one talent to execute perfectly the movements of a well-practiced

choreography,

It is another entirely to perform.