just a medical student.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m just a med student. The rest of the team will be here shortly, they’ll explain everything to you.”
We wait in silence.
Off the Shelf
Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Contributing Writer
UT Southwestern School of Medicine
Aishwarya Iyer is a fourth-year medical student at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX. She graduated with a Master of Public Health in Global Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 2022. She is passionate about reproductive justice, public health, narrative medicine, research, and advocacy, and is excited to engage with these varied interests in her career as a family medicine physician. In her free time, Aishwarya finds joy in exploring new coffee shops, working out, reading novels and dreaming of writing one someday, and spending time with friends and family.
To Give Your Heart And Soul
Physicians give their heart and soul to the practice of medicine. Caring for patients at their most vulnerable moments is a heavy responsibility and privilege that medical professionals must carry.
Dying is Not
Dying is not / as romantic as I once thought. / I think you always knew this.
Outside In (2022)
This is a reimagination of anatomy from outside in.
More Than Skin Deep
Our successes are born out of / The communities that uplifted us. / The teachers that pushed us.
Choreiform Tango
The intruder slithers in at midnight, / slinking his way to the boy fast asleep, / the tangled mess of hospital wires his field of untrimmed grass,
Operating Room
As I step carefully into the sterile field / past the rows of scalpels, forceps and clamps, / I sense a gentle fluttering in my chest.
Thomas Browne, Jorge Luis Borges and Cultural Fluency
‘Write Rx’ is a narrative medicine column offering ‘prescriptions’ for narrative medicine exercises. Each column entry begins with an introduction to the theme of the entry, offers literary excerpts to expand on that theme and concludes with questions that invite students to explore a corresponding narrative medicine topic. The goal is to offer space for reflection for busy medical students, as well as foster medical students’ communication toolkit in the increasingly complex space of patient care. Topics include cultural fluency, illness cognitions and more.
Caduceus
Should the symbol of medicine bear one snake or two? / If you answered two, then the joke is on you! / Or, at least, that’s the current popular view.
Trauma Shift
I imagine her mother / Squeezing daughter’s limp hand / Silent tears
Anatomy: A Cadaveric Poem
Anatomy is more than flesh and bone and blood. / It’s more than the donor and the scalpel teaching the student.
HPI
good morning, i’m the medical student / i must ask how you are feeling / even though my eyes already sting
Contributing Writer
Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine
I am a fourth year medical student interested in family medicine. I am passionate about preventative health and culturally competent care!