A French Proverb...

"To cure -- sometimes,

To relieve -- often,

To comfort -- always."

- Unknown

This little proverb was given to me by my pediatrics professor near the end of last semester and it has crossed my mind several times since.  The words are so brief, yet they carry such a powerful message.  As a busy medical student and a novice clinician, it is incredibly easy to get caught up in the overwhelming amounts of data that we are constantly taking in and trying so hard to remember, that we often forget the single most important part of our job... truly caring for our patients.  Vast medical knowledge is nice, and often helpful, but not essential in most cases.  There are no magic pills that will fix every ailment, and the wonders of modern medicine, however great, cannot heal all wounds or cure every illness.  Often, the best "treatments" we can give, are not actually treatments at all.  It has been my experience, that those providers who can consistently "comfort" their patients, are they who are the most successful.  The practice of medicine is much more of an art, than a science, and the better we remember that as clinicians, the better we will be, and the happier our patient's will be in the end.