Rediscovering Healing Through Touch: A Medical Student's Patient Perspective.

Abstract

In my second year of medical school, I found myself on the other side of the hospital bed after a cat bite led to emergency hand surgery. Despite my familiarity with hospitals and medicine, the experience left me feeling disoriented, vulnerable, and emotionally isolated. I was surrounded by caring clinicians, but I often felt more like a diagnosis than a person. One morning, an internal medicine physician sat beside me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder. That simple gesture broke through the noise; it reminded me that I was seen, not just treated. It comforted me in a way no medication or procedure had. In this narrative, I reflect on how that moment reshaped my understanding of healing and the role of intentional touch in clinical care. Drawing on literature and personal experience, I argue that therapeutic touch should be embraced by physicians as a tool of empathy and connection. Especially in the wake of COVID-19, we must remember that presence and touch remain essential parts of healing.