Are You a Fixer or A Healer?

I was talking with one of my physician clients the other day, when I referred to him as “a healer”. An orthopedic surgeon, he promptly corrected me.

“I’m not a healer,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I’m a fixer. I fix people.”

At first I thought he was just being self-effacing, but he matter-of-factly reminded me that in orthopedic surgery, physicians fix; they re-set, replace, clean out, reattach. There are mechanics to the work. Highly technical and specialized but nevertheless, mechanics. This prompted me to ask another physician, part of my advisory board and a neurologist specializing in stroke, how he saw himself.

“I am a healer,” he said, without hesitation.

This difference between healers and fixers has been swimming around in my mind ever since. What is the difference? And, more importantly, how does it change the way one thinks about oneself as a doctor? For sure, some of this has to do with the specialty; whether one is a surgeon or a neurologist, for example, where one specialty involves more mechanical treatments and another might be more about management of chronic conditions. This difference might have everything to do with how the doctor perceives their role in the patient’s life. But there’s more.

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