Table 3.

Themes from Residents' Writing: Healing Power of Compassion

“I see what Kimberly is trying to show me [a normal delivery of a healthy infant]. I think I will need to recover from this place, the way people need to recover from other crises, like war. I think it will take a lot of healthy deliveries.”

“We came in to change my father's code status … It was the end of the third week in the ICU and I must have looked exhausted and ragged. Dr. L. took a step towards me and embraced me with both arms as if I were his son. I looked up and thought I saw his eyes moisten. In a sense he had absorbed some of my emotion and I felt bolstered by this gesture.”