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Clinical Pastoral Education
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Patient Initiative
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For more than forty years Dr. Burton J. Polansky
has been a dedicated physician – the epitome of the caregiver
who combines medical skill with compassion in caring for his patients.
Since 1972, he has been chief of medicine and cardiology as well as
nedical director of the critical care unit at Brockton Hospital. In
1974 he became director of the Transitional Year Residency Program
at Boston Medical Center/Brockton Hospital where he is a role model
and mentor for physicians beginning their careers.
Throughout his career, Dr. Polansky has been instrumental in establishing
programs within the community and the hospital that meet the needs
of the diverse city of Brockton. He started a clinic to provide health
care for the homeless and began one of the first in-hospital cardiac
rehabilitation programs as well as an outpatient program at the YMCA
where he played volleyball and basketball with his patients every
week. At the hospital, he started a stress clinic and opened an inpatient
psychiatric unit. He also began an ad hoc ethics committee.
It is, however, Dr. Polansky's interaction with individual patients
and their families that make him truly exceptional – and inspirational.
A nurse at Brockton Hospital wrote: "He has the capability of putting
his own values and needs aside for the patient's best interest. There
have been many difficult patient situations in the critical care unit
that he is asked to handle. He does so with great caring and professionalism.
He has the capability of supporting the family as well as the patient."
Dr. Polansky provides hope and encouragement in the most difficult
situations and thinks nothing of making home visits, accompanying
patients to consultations at other hospitals, following up with former
patients who are admitted to the hospital by other physicians, and
keeping in touch with the families of patients who have died. It is
not unusual for him to spend hours at the bedside or be present in
the middle of the night working vigorously to keep a patient alive.
Dr. Polansky is revered by all his patients. At his hospital, he is
the "doctors' doctor" and also the doctor of the nurses,
administrators, maintenance workers and housekeepers. They go to him
for themselves and their families and friends, seeking "treatment,
second opinions, advice, consultation about family conflicts, bereavement,
stress relief, you name it."
A patient and fellow physician summarizes Dr. Polansky's life this
way: "He is the skilled doctor who stays with you emotionally; who
listens, understands, comforts; who provides wisdom and support; who
can make you laugh at life when possible; who helps maintain hope
and embrace life along the way; and even be there in the darkest hour
to help face the unfaceable. He profoundly touches the lives of so
many, from all walks of life, and does so with grace, humor, humility
and gratitude for the privilege."
Dr. Polansky is a graduate of Hobart College and received his medical
degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He completed his internship and residency at Boston City Hospital.
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