Off the Shelf is our section for creative works by medical students.
Contributing Writer
Albany Medical College
Rachel Eisenberg is a first year medical student at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY class of 2025. In 2021, she graduated from Union College with a Bachelor of Science in biology and history along with a Masters in Business Administration in Healthcare Management from Clarkson University. She enjoys drawing, hiking, and baking in her free time. After graduating medical school, Rachel would like to pursue a career in pediatric radiation oncology.
I made this heart in an undergraduate sculpture class, dreaming of the day I would finally don my own white coat. A year later, it now sits on my desk in the exact line of sight I take each day as I peer above my computer screen, with my stethoscope draped around the base and my Gray’s Anatomy book perched next to it.
As we progressed through our other coursework simultaneously, this course seemed to synthesize it all, impressing upon us the weighty responsibility of becoming a future health provider. This piece, entitled “The Practice of My Art,” is a collage of illustrations I drew throughout the year reflecting on different courses, organ systems, or learning experiences from my first year of medical school.
This painting is a reflection on my first month of inpatient medicine as a third-year medical student during the peak of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I was deep into my pre-clinical courses as a first-year medical student and struggling to carve out time for the other things I loved in this world, like hiking. This image was taken on a hike on one chilly October day when I finally managed to get away and hike a local trail.
This is a portrait of my friend and fellow medical school classmate, Brandon. His smile reflects the joy that comes with finding one’s purpose and understanding that one can benefit others through medical learning.
The goal of this image is to make light of the traditional idea of art as something deep and profound. Art can be funny too, and this cartoon-ish piece makes art out of the mundane and somewhat gross experience of blowing one’s nose.
This is a portrait of my friend and medical school classmate stylized as ‘caput medusae,’ or ‘head of Medusa.’ However, instead of snakes coming out of her head there are just gummy worms.
This painting, utilizing oil and acrylic paints, was made in the midst of studying for my ongoing classes and boards. There have been a couple diseases that have stuck with me throughout my studies. One of them is type 1 achalasia from the GI block I did recently.
March 13, 2020. A date engraved in many of our minds. The day the President declared a National Emergency concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease Outbreak.
What if I could see the emotions that flood my patient’s mind? What if I could know how much space anger, frustration, joy, sorrow, hope took up in their mind’s real estate?
Dead eschars are excised. / Skin grafts grow like flowers / Repotted for new life.
Grandpapa had a gift for storytelling. / Sitting on the two-legged stools at the end of the Hutong,
Contributing Writer and Social Media Manager
Tulane University School of Medicine
Yichi Zhang is a third-year MD/MBA student at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Tulane University with a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology and a minor in Psychology.
In his free time, Yichi enjoys playing tennis, teaching Chinese, and practicing Kendo.
After he graduates medical school, Yichi wishes to pursue a career in Internal Medicine, with a focus on personalized medicine, all the while building more connections between the American and Chinese medical communities.
