ABSTRACT
Suffering is the one narrative theme that permeates the entire healthcare system and, as such, spares few patients and professionals. Physicians in turn lament their many losses in the healthcare revolution, and the pressures of managed care, over-regulation, and the treadmill of practice that provide insufficient time to spend with patients. The acute lament is a normal, healthy, integral part of the healing process. Alternatively, with overwhelming trauma, the response may be stunned, numbed, silence, not necessarily lament but rather the Acute Stress Reaction. A lament may become chronic when grief following an acute trauma is interrupted, disowned, or disenfranchised, and there is no opportunity for complete mourning. The head of the residency program receives reports that one of his physicians demonstrates irritability, sarcasm, and a negative attitude towards nurses and patients. There are funeral arrangements to organize, insurances, taxes, finances to sort out.
