Tag: humanism in medicine

Jennifer Hong (6 Posts)

2016 Writers-in-Training Program Director

Emory School of Medicine

Hi, I'm a third year medical student at Emory University. I graduated in May 2014 from Duke University with majors in Neuroscience and English. I like fiction, penguins, discussions about race relations and feminist theory, makeup tutorials, and bubble tea. I may not be able to give you lots of medical advice, but if you need a couple cat videos to brighten up your day, you've come to the right person.

On Empathy (Can These Shoes Ever Fit?)

Published by Jennifer Hong

The position of an M0.5 is a very paradoxical one. We’ve gone through five months of class, amazed that our brains can fit in so much material and even more amazed that we have to make room for more. We’ve gotten our white coats and try to ask patients smart questions while having no idea what solution we can provide for the ailments being enumerated. Our goal at this point is not to diagnose — it’s to learn as much information as we can so that somewhere down the long, long line, we’ll be able to utilize what we know and make something of it.

Humane Medicine

Published by Kevin Dueck, MD

“What can you do here that we can’t do at home?” This question angered my resident. How dare a patient admitted to the hospital ask for justification of their plan? The progress note had already been written and orders entered; assent to the plan was assumed and having to walk the patient through the options would extend rounds considerably. What an inconvenience.

Mia

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training get the support they need to get through difficult personal experiences? Mia, a fourth-year medical student from Pennsylvania who intends to become a hematologist, describes the devastating situation she endured when her best friend died during her second year in medical school. She also comments on the complications of treating people in hematology.

Sasha

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training not lose touch with the importance of forming relationships with patients as they continue in their training? Sasha, a fourth-year medical student who plans to go into neurology, expresses her concerns about sustaining an ideal model of patient care. She also shares how she deals with the emotions that practicing medicine triggers.

How to Make Challah: The Jewish Octopus

Published by Ajay Koti

Challah bread is traditionally prepared for Jewish holidays and the Sabbath. We made ours on a Wednesday night. Helen and Marie stare warily from their wheelchairs as a dozen medical students file into the retirement home lounge, toting tubs of flour and challah dough. “We’re not playing bingo?” Helen asks, looking disappointed, as students and octogenarians begin matching up for the evening.

John C.

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training allow their personal experiences with loss and death to inform how they practice medicine? John, a fourth-year medical student in Philadelphia intending to become a psychiatrist, reflects on how his father’s long-drawn demise from Alzheimer’s influenced him.

Katie Taylor

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training honor a patient’s experience as unique and significant, even as they become accustomed to witnessing suffering? Katie, a third-year medical student in New York who also holds a MFA in oil painting, shares some of the worries and questions she is grappling with on rotations.

Where No One Knows Your Name

Published by Sarab Sodhi

I worked my last shift in the emergency department as a medical student last week. A few hours in, I walked to the chart rack and grabbed the next patient to be seen. I walked into the room in question and introduced myself in that fluid, simple way I’d perfected over thousands of encounters over the previous few years. “Hi, I’m Sarab Sodhi, the fourth-year med student on the team. What brings you in to see us?” …

Aryanna

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training learn to relate to their patients in order to practice humanistic medicine? Aryanna, a fourth-year medical student in Texas going into family medicine, remembers a patient who showed her how much she could offer beyond physical medicine. She also reflects on how her multi-ethnic identity has influenced her journey in health care.

Communication Breakdown: The Art in Medicine

Published by Joshua Greenwald

I walk around, wide-eyed yet confused. It seems so different. I always thought I was too objective for my art friends and too subjective for my science friends. But was that really an accurate reflection of my own personality? Medicine is about reductionism, objectivity and straightforwardness. In medical school, I’m learning a method of communication in which empathy is taught as a route to finding out more about a patient; it’s conveniently called the patient-centered …

Bit

Published by Annie Robinson

How can doctors-in-training act in accordance with their values through the challenging medical school experience? Bit, a first-year medical student with a background in positive psychology and an interest in studying empathy in clinical contexts, describes how she entered medical school with skepticism, yet has found ways to maintain her commitment to compassion.

The Metaphorization of Cancer

Published by Steven Lange

A leading expert on language and the mind, cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker suggests in his book “The Stuff of Thought” that “conceptual metaphors point to an obvious way in which people could learn to reason about new, abstract concepts,” as well as provide the imagery and substrate to help store and share knowledge. The metaphorization of illness allows us to describe it in easily-digestible forms which have relevance and relation to our everyday speech. The …

Steven Lange (13 Posts)

Medical Student Editor and in-Training Staff Member

Albany Medical College

Steven attends Albany Medical College as a student of the Class of 2017. Raised in Queens, New York, he earned a BA in English with a minor in Biology from Binghamton University in May 2013. Some of his interests include poetry, martial arts, traveling, and continental philosophy. He is currently aspiring to become a radiologist.