Tag: art in medicine

Betelhem Yohannes Betelhem Yohannes (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer

University of Washington School of Medicine


Betelhem is a fourth year medical student at University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA class of 2023. She graduated from University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. She enjoys creative writing and spending time with friends and family in her free time.




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.

No. 17A

My attention swung back and forth between my mom, my screen and the pairs of eyes periodically peering into the hospital room. I focused on the next question on my screen. Another patient had expired as if they were a carton of milk left too long in the fridge.

Small Differences in the Face of Death

Every medical student has felt apprehensive about facing death at some point, right? Maybe you have experienced someone dying before, or maybe it is something you have never seen and only rarely contemplated. Regardless, there is a subtle tension lurking during your first two years of pre-clinical studies, during which disease and death are intellectualized and abstract. Then clerkships start.

Progression of dandelion painting

Reflections On Resilience

In early spring, amid the earlier quarantines, I watched dandelions grow outside my window. At first, subtly and hidden among the blades of grass. Then budding, bursting yellow amid green galaxies. These tiny suns danced in April’s wind and their scent carried morning’s dew and earth-like warmth into midday, until the smells of grills and barbecues took stage.

Our Visual Art Gallery

We put out this call for visual artwork several months ago, to gauge our communities’ interest and willingness to embrace a new medium of expression on our website. We asked artists to submit with their work an artist’s statement to reflect on what prompted their creating their work and how their art reflects on their experiences in medicine.

Artwork for submission

Open Heart (2022)

This work is about vulnerability and the feeling of being vulnerable. There is a special exposure to vulnerability for everyone who is taking part in healthcare systems, be it of course as a patient who potentially suffers restrictions in their physical and/or psychic integrity trough illness or also the caregivers who are under pressure to be attentive, know the right things, act and speak properly all the time.

Anna Boehler Anna Boehler (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer

Medical University of Vienna


Anna is a fifth year medical student at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. In 2018 she also graduated from the University of Vienna with a Master in history and art. She enjoys sports, painting and reading works of philosophy in her free time. After graduating medical school in the future, Anna would like to pursue a career in general medicine.