How grief transformed a psychiatrist’s approach to patient care

How grief transformed a psychiatrist’s approach to patient care 
MedPageToday's KevinMD.com [reposted in AAHPM's newsletter]; by Devina Maya Wadhawa, MD; 5/12/25
It is a routine Saturday morning—I am sitting in my office, looking at the snowflakes dropping outside my window. As I sip on my cup of Earl Grey tea preparing my psyche for a busy day of managing an on-call shift on an acute care psychiatry floor, I am suddenly washed over by grief. A very similar Saturday a year ago, I was saying goodbye to my father as he was being taken off life support in the intensive care unit after suffering a massive posterior myocardial infarction and ending up with a cardiac arrest at the very young age of 62. The year has been nothing short of trying, a year of firsts. ... It is through our own suffering and healing that we become capable of truly healing others. Grief has helped me understand that the greatest gift I can offer my patients is not just my medical expertise, but my heart.