Burnout
Burnout / They say dreamers aren’t doctors / So they kill the dream / Tests with trivial details we have barely seen, / let alone remember.
Off the Shelf
Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Medical Student Editor Emeritus
Northeast Ohio Medical University
Ileana began her first year of medical school the fall of 2014 at the Northeast Ohio Medical University. She hopes to become a doctor one day; more importantly, she hopes to live anywhere that gets sunlight for more than three months a year. As one of six children, she has learned many important life lessons about how to eat really fast and the importance of not being last to shower. These lessons come in handy now that she lives with five of her classmates, without whom she couldn't imagine getting through medical school.
Powerless
“He is beyond the help of human aid” / He quoted from the big book / He stared directly at me as he spoke / And that one line was all it took
Anatomical Variation
A poem about gross anatomy from our writer-in-training Damien Zreibe.
An Afternoon with a Swazi Boy
A poem from our writer-in-training Brent Schnipke about his experience abroad.
Autopsy of a Child
A poetic reflection on shadowing in the medical examiner’s office.
That Path Towards the Elusive ‘MD’ (2014)
As a busy medical student, I have struggled to continue having time to make art. So, I decided to draw a cartoon about the process and development that is medical school. I have sensed in myself a huge transformation over the last two years, since beginning school in August 2012. I have had many hard times, dark times, but I also always have uplifting moments that remind me of why I want to become a physician.
Bless The Lord O My Soul
The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning It’s time to sing your song again. I prayed for Nina Pham yesterday. I prayed a pithy resident’s prayer. The prayer took (give or take) the amount of time that it takes for me to walk from my parking space to the revolving door of my hospital. In a huge tertiary care facility, a resident might have a formidable trek from her car to the revolving …
autumn autopsy
as I walk away from your linoleum tomb I run my tongue over cracked lips for the first time and they are no longer attached but hanging like you were and will always be suspended from cold mental concrete waiting for warm hands to pull you down and then pull you apart before your body bursts into a thousand crisp autumn leaves and the wind scoops you up scatters beautiful bright sun droplets over your …
Ward Wonders
The echo of heartbeats near the newfound graves, With the first breath of life and the last sigh of death Waving to each other in the night. Birthdays and funerals march along in unison, doors apart. Faces in scrubs rise and set with the sun, While those stuck in bed can only change their gowns, and wait. The rhythmic beeps of machines And the clack of shoes on the linoleum floor Sing a comforting melody. …
Stethoscope
I came to be in 1816, Before then I was never seen. During my birth tuberculosis ran wild, I think it is fair to say I saved the life of a child. I arose from the astute mind of Monsieur Laënnec, I bet you did not detect my French accent. I’m often found around your neck, Nowadays I can get pretty high-tech. Sometimes I float in your white coat pocket, But …
Old Talents
One of the things that I have learnt Ever since I have embarked on this long, long journey Is that with endless responsibilities Comes the increasing importance of prioritizing and letting go What matters most And what matters less Always in some sort of dynamic balance between Marching towards a tangible goal and Melting down in a binary world of studying and not. Twelve years, sounds like a long time So many years of …
The Grief Playlist
They have a term for it in the medical school curriculum: Breaking Bad News. An important communication objective. As a physician, I championed the “Breaking Bad News” clinical skills sessions, preferred them to the physical exam teachings that became dry and stale year after year. I volunteered to facilitate a small group every autumn, gently redirecting students as they fumbled through the contrived scenarios with an often over-zealous actor.
Contributing Writer Emeritus
Dalhousie Medical School
Carolyn Reardon is a Class of 2015 medical student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
