Pages of my life turn over as the breezes of time flow over me.

Remembrances of your presence as the world welcomed my firstborn so many years ago.

Your calming voice and words of wisdom reminded me that life would be different but oh so much better.

My baby girl would grow to be a healer like you, offering hope and consolation to those seeking her out. Expert hands stitched my rambunctious toddler’s brow, telling me that my son would be fine. Now he is a man grown tall and strong, finding his pathway in this world as time has raced on.

When my heart waged a skirmish against me, you stood at my side, talking me down from the mountain of fear. Your words of wisdom and compassionate care were a salve for my wounded heart. Encouragement was given to spur me on, telling me the “sky is the limit,” and so it was.

As chapters of my life are being written, you are there to guide me and share advice, but you always maintain our partnership, the give and take.

In this sacred clearing, we are each co-creators of this story that is my life. One telling the story, the other patiently listening. Roles flip back and forth as life’s journey moves forward.

You are the cushion to soften the fall when life deals a harsh blow. Always encouraging, always hopeful.

What will happen when your kind is absent, forced out by clutching hands, greed, and impatience; making you feel unimportant and powerless? Who will be there for comfort and support, for the healing we search for?

The unconcerned do not see the forest for the trees, trees that form a wall blurring the truth.

But the truth must shine forth. It has to. Healers, do not lose hope! To lose hope is to surrender. We, who need your healing touch, will be your support as you have done for us.

This story has not reached its end. We have lines to write and words to be spoken. Our partnership is worth fighting for.

I am a patient with several health conditions, so I have had the opportunity to be a patient of several health care clinicians. They all have my immense gratitude for getting me through some trying times. Over the past decade or so, I have seen the face of health care change. This is something that has taken place within my health system and also within the majority of other corporate health care systems. There have been advances made by corporatization, but there are also casualties of it.

From what I have observed, there has been a diminishing relationship between patient and doctor. Physicians seem harried to enter patient information into an electronic health record which is not always conducive to a logical sequence of events and often has fallen short of its expected goals. Hence, it has been a contributing factor to the stress and anxiety doctors and nurses have had to endure. Doctors have to spend extra time fingering on the keyboard to come up with the correct sequence to order proper dosages of drugs for their patients, time that could have been spent more appropriately in the doctor-patient interaction.

Patients, at times, perceive the pressure placed on the doctor to complete the visit so that he/she can move on to the next patient waiting. The “conveyor belt” mentality is inappropriate in any health care setting, and, as a patient, I feel “underserved” in this type of scenario.

Moreover, many doctors feel their work is not truly valued or their voices heard. When recommendations for improvement of procedural tasks or the operational function of their job duties are given, their voices go unheard. Well, maybe heard but not acted upon. Groups that are in place to represent the physicians’ opinions are, many times, figurehead associations at best. They seem powerless to bring about meaningful change. That change, potentially, could improve the care given to patients, thereby resulting in higher levels of patient satisfaction.

Now, the push is not to enter family medicine as a career but into a specialty area. Because of this thinking, we find ourselves with a significant shortage of primary care physicians who represent the gateway to health care. Those physicians currently serving in this area are burned out and dissatisfied with how their profession has evolved. It is not the tending to the sick that disheartens them, but the bureaucracy driving many out of today’s health care systems. In addition, enduring the high-stress and gut-wrenching times during which COVID ran rampant was the final nail in the coffin for many physicians and nurses to leave the professions that have given so much.

Please, I ask those corporate health care system administrators to take notice of the downward spiral of health care and make some positive changes before it becomes a totally hopeless situation. Some say it’s already there. I refuse to believe that. I hope some “brave souls see the writing on the wall”  and can reverse course to right the sinking ship. Many lives depend on it.

Michele Luckenbaugh is a patient advocate.