Echoes of Grief
“We have reason to believe that your daughter is brain dead.” The silence was deafening.
Tag: patient-centered care
Contributing Writer
Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Ashley Newsholme is a third-year medical student at Florida International Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, Florida, class of 2025. In 2020 she graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in dance. In her free time she enjoys cooking, reading, spending time with her animals, and volunteering at Camillus Health Concern for street medicine outreach. After graduating from medical school, Ashley hopes to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine.
The Anatomy of Healing
On September 29, 2021, my world started to unravel. My first anatomy lab as a medical student had just begun. I stepped foot in the cadaver lab where the pungent odor of formaldehyde clung to the air, and I was overflowing with eagerness.
Medical Humanities: A Pathway to Patient-Centered Care
To fully capture the breadth of medical humanities is simply not possible. In fact, it is all too easy for the medical community to lack an appreciation for all of the ways that the humanities not only complement, but enhance medicine. Medicine — a field so biological and chemical — is often associated with far more rigidity than where the humanities permits the mind to go.
Applying an Energetics Argument to Our Lives
My eyes ran across the same paragraph for the fifth — or maybe even sixth — time in the span of 15 minutes. Though I was giving my undivided attention to the paragraph, I could not move past it; I was at a complete loss for how to convey my next point.
Perspectives on Building Rapport with Patients
While being inundated with information on most things that are normal and abnormal about the human body, it is important to remember that we learn all this information to treat patients, not to treat diseases.
Contributing Writer
West Virginia University School of Medicine
Ogaga is a third year medical student at West Virginia University (WVU). He intends to pursue a residency in neurosurgery and to integrate clinical research into his practice. To this end, he earned a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Science with an emphasis in neurosurgery. In 2015, Ogaga graduated from WVU with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in economics. He has been interested in the arts and humanities since high school and came to appreciate the poignant stories various forms of artwork tell during his undergrad career. He enjoys observing all forms of art and actively writes poetry influenced by his love of Victorian literature. He realized that patients and clinicians may have their own stories to tell and that the arts and humanities can help all stakeholders better connect with stories of healthcare. In this light, he designed a project with the goal of using narrative medicine to improve patients' qualities of life.