Welcome! I'm Pedro, and I'm so glad you're here.
Healing With Compassion
I’m Pedro Flores, a restorative doctor, and I believe the healthcare system can benefit from a new form of healing. You may be asking yourself what exactly does a restorative doctor do? My mission is to help patients, healthcare providers and learners heal differently after healthcare harm. I use a series of restorative practices which are perfectly aligned with the things we value most in healthcare: dignity, respect, compassion, accountability, whole-person care, and first, do no harm.
I created this website in order to help educate on restorative practices and inspire you to begin your own restorative journey. Take your time exploring the site––it's full of so much useful information. I hope you become inspired to learn more about RJ and make a difference in your community. Feel free to reach out to me if you become interested in exploring a restorative approach (even if you're feeling overwhelmed at the moment). It's going to take a village to heal our healthcare system, and we need to be there for each other.
Restoratively yours,
Pedro
Must We Harm Each Other In Order to Heal Our Patients?
Early on in my career, I recognized an alarming part of our culture. We purport to be a healing profession, and many of us take the Hippocratic Oath to “first, do no harm,” yet, too often we resort to harmful behaviors when interacting with each other. Some refer to this as horizontal violence (e.g., verbal abuse, intimidation, bullying), however, my research demonstrates that mistreatment is often vertical in nature due to a combination dysfunctional hierarchies, abuses of power, systemic pressures, and an unforgiving culture. Not only have I witnessed this type of abuse throughout my career, but I’ve been complicit in it.
How do we address this pervasive and harmful aspect of our profession? One approach is to get to the root of the problem––through truth-telling, accountability and reconciliation––where this type of harm ultimately afflicts providers, learners and patients.
It Takes a Village
After finishing my dissertation, I set out to find a form of justice that would help “heal the healers” in a compassionate yet accountable manner. Restorative practices remind healthcare communities to slow down, catch their breath, revisit what they truly value, and to see each other as important members of the same community of care. Only then are we able to address harm and conflict in a humanistic way. Over millennia, these healing practices have been used for peacebuilding, to repair harm and rebuild trust, and to improve communication through creating the conditions for honest and authentic dialogue.
I specialize in helping organizations address mistreatment harm in healthcare and academic medicine. During my practice, I’ve found that RJ can be effectively used to address healthcare injustices, respond to medical errors, and create more inclusive and supportive healthcare communities.