Sabine Walter, in conversation with ...
Dr. Kirsten Wenner, Specialist in Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Dr Wenner, what do you love about your profession?
That's not so easy to answer in one sentence. My job gives me immense satisfaction. As a doctor, what counts for me is the contact with people. It is not only the knowledge of being able to help. It is rather the chance to experience very different people and to be able to make contact with them in a way that not all of us experience. When you have to deal with people in your job and this involves health, there is automatically a different neediness and thus a different openness involved. Many days I go home with a great sense of gratitude because I have had experiences that make me look at my life differently.
I am learning to appreciate small moments differently. I am also grateful that people reveal themselves and share very personal things with me. Even though it certainly has to do with my role as a doctor that people confide in me, it is not a matter of course.
In addition to this human or interpersonal aspect, I am of course also attracted by the professional aspect. When I find out what a patient really has - especially when it's complex conditions like developmental disorders or epilepsies - it makes me happy. When I go home in the evening knowing that my patients are now fully looked after and cared for, it makes me happy. In addition to therapies or medication, my patients and, in the case of children, of course also the parents, receive above all security. You can leave the practice with the confidence that together we can work this out and healing or relief is possible.
It helps me that, in addition to classical medicine, I also know TCM. This gives me an even more holistic view of the human being. Body and soul are one unit. This cannot be separated. And being able to look at and use both aspects in diagnostics as well as in healing is a benefit for me as a doctor, especially for my patients.
And therefore I can say: Even though I originally wanted to study German and become a journalist, I don't regret my decision to study medicine and my profession for a second. Being there for people is exactly what my heart beats for.
What parallels are there to what we do, personality development?
Many. I have to find out very quickly what type of person enters my practice rooms. How can I open him up? How do I meet him? Does one simply need a conversation or are treatments required beyond that? Conversation is crucial for a doctor, even if that is totally lost in the training. The NC is what counts for admission to medical school, not empathy or communication skills.
But is someone a good doctor just because he is good at memorising? Not in my view. I think it's not only professionalism but also humanity that makes a doctor. That also includes being able to relate to people. Why does the patient tell me what he tells me exactly as he tells me it? Is it really what he tells me or is there something unsaid that is of central importance?
Especially in the Paediatrics I have not one, but two or three patients. There I need to look not only at the child but also at the parents, at what happens between them. What do the mother and father see differently? Where do women and men treat each other differently? The topic of leadership, i.e. patient leadership, plays a role here.
Example: When mothers come to me for the first time with a young infant, I feel the mothers' anxiety. Every clearing of the throat, every little sniffle, makes the mothers worry. And even though I as a doctor know that this is normal, I have to take the fears seriously and then accompany them in such a way that the parents gain confidence and security. And when the children are two years old and a relaxed mother sits across from me who is no longer thrown off course by a prolonged bout of flu in her child, I realise that not only have the children grown up, but so have the parents.
When do you get the best ideas?
Very different. Sometimes just like that. Sometimes during work. Often when I am alone and go running. That is my source of energy, where I can let my gaze wander and be in the flow. Then ideas come to me.
Sometimes also when I am out and about with my daughter and observe her. Sometimes when I notice situations in everyday life or pick up impulses.
What will your profession look like in 2050?
How will our professional image change? That is a difficult question, because there are already very different doctors today. This is also due to the fact that there are different people with very different needs and wishes.
I think that is why will develop even more different branches. By this I don't mean the professionalism but the type of treatment. I really hope that there will be more networking, because that's what our society is looking for and needs. And by networking I mean networking between doctors, but also between doctors and non-medical practitioners or speech therapists and physiotherapists or psychotherapists.
However, one development that, in my view, is not sustainable is that of remote or online diagnostics. In this kind of treatment, a central aspect falls by the wayside. That of the soul. Furthermore, I am convinced that fear is a driving and moving force for many people and also in our society. And nowhere else is anxiety so high in people than when they are seriously ill or suspect they are. And to take away or reduce this fear, I need an experienced doctor who looks patients in the eye and senses what is moving them.
Personally, I would like to be exactly where I am in 2050. Only bigger - with a team and satisfied patients whom I could accompany a bit on their life's journey.
Dr Kirsten Wenner is a specialist in paediatrics and adolescent medicine as well as a neuropaediatrician. In her Practice in Diessen am Ammersee she treats small and large patients with methods of classical medicine, neuropaediatrics, Chinese medicine and acupuncture.
