Essay: a cancer patient's perspective on how and why care providers should pursue healing partnerships.
This essay is based on the author's experiences as a cancer patient who underwent the grueling treatment known as a bone marrow transplant. An unintended consequence of the author's war with cancer is that he now "enjoys" more empathy for and insights into the challenging service encounters experienced by acutely ill individuals. This essay discusses why cancer patients and health service providers should each benefit when healing partnerships are developed. It also describes how such healing partnerships should be pursued. The content delivered in this essay is intended to help health care professionals better manage the means by which they deliver health services to acutely ill patients.