Slow Medicine

The Way to Healing

By: Victoria Sweet

Narrated by: Victoria Sweet

"Wonderful... Physicans would do well to learn this most important lesson about caring for patients." —The New York Times Book Review

Over the years that Victoria Sweet has been a physician, “healthcare” has replaced medicine, “providers” look at their laptops more than at their patients, and costs keep soaring, all in the ruthless pursuit of efficiency. Yet the remedy that economists and policy makers continue to miss is also miraculously simple. Good medicine takes more than amazing technology; it takes time—time to respond to bodies as well as data, time to arrive at the right diagnosis and the right treatment.

Sweet knows this because she has learned and lived it over the course of her remarkable career. Here she relates unforgettable stories of the teachers, doctors, nurses, and patients through whom she discovered the practice of Slow Medicine, in which she has been both pioneer and inspiration. Medicine, she helps us to see, is a craft and an art as well as a science. It is relational, personal, even spiritual. To do it well requires a hard-won wisdom that no algorithm can replace—that brings together “fast” and “slow” in a truly effective, efficient, sustainable, and humane way of healing.

Excellent. Introductory.

Outstanding, but seems like an introduction that needs a sequel in order to dive deeper into the emerging field and benefits of slow medicine. Written by an author trained in, and over a long career appreciative of what she rightly describes as fast medicine, the book has much to commend it as not abandoning the almost incalculable benefits of modern Western medicine. I say almost, because as she so frequently alludes to, the benefits of fast medicine come at a cost that we as a human community can not and should no longer be willing to pay. Her periodic references to Wendell Berry add beautiful gravitas to this much needed subject. And notwithstanding her rich exposure to the history of anthropology and its intersection with medicine, some of her references to astrology seem unfortunately laden with Eastern pantheistic concepts that ultimately undermine what would otherwise be a rich Christian testimony. Definitely worth the read though and very much grateful for her winsome leaning in on this long overdue subject.

Excellent

Excellent book. Thank you and those who were part of this journey in healthcare. It helped nourished some burn out symptoms. Being a Nurse for 10+ years has been so gratifying but also strained by “people upstairs”.
You are a wonderful human❤️

Outstanding

Every single thing about this book was fabulous: the story, the personal-ness, the narration.

Slow is Beautiful

Thanks to VictoriaSweet for writing this fabulous book and for taking the time to cultivate slow medicine. She has the antidote for what ails us as a culture, and fortunately for anyone who is sick, she is writing about and teaching what our practitioners most need to learn. God spare us all from “health care.”

So good

This book has been one of the few audible books that I binged listened to and I know I will listen to again.