The Forgotten Patient
Elise Kao MS3 encounters a struggling addiction patient in the Emergency Department who reinforces their determination to pursue psychiatry and advocate for forgotten patients.
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Medical Student Contributing Writer
University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville
Elise is a fourth-year medical student at the University of South Carolina Greenville. She enjoys her many house plants and dog Lily. In her spare time, she loves to read fantasy fiction, practice hot yoga, and go on outdoor adventures.
Surgery: Beauty and Violence
Melinda Staub reflects on surgery as a both violence and healing, delving on medicine’s intricate ethical and practical landscape. Through an acrylic painting, she demonstrates her reflections on this topic.
How to Declare Someone Dead: A Brief Reflection
Shannon Fang, medical student, comments on the necessity of processing emotionally stressful encounters in medicine.
Celeste’s Bliss
Medical student Medha Palnati describes barriers to care, and highlights the need for greater awareness and sensitivity in patient care.
The Blessing, The Grocery Store
Medical student Sabrina Lazar discovers a local MENA-owned grocery store that offers not only essential ingredients but also a sense of community.
Misery: A Small Collection of Patients’ Stories
Dr. Marissa Mayfield uses a trio of poems to teleport readers into the reality of medical crises and highlight the need for empathy in healthcare.
Another Chronic Painer
Dr. Ervin Anies introduces a reverse poem to help delve into the multifactorial and complicated picture that is treating chronic pain. His poem reflects the struggles and triumphs a provider can encounter while dealing with chronic pain patients.
76-Year-Old with a Neck Mass
This piece is a reflection of the first few months of Sriya’s clinical years experience. There are a thousand different stories all happening at the same time in the same hospital, and each of them has plenty to learn from and cherish. This piece is a reflection on the privilege that we get as learners and future providers to learn about and from others’ stories.
Her Story Too
Christopher Awad uses poetry to underline how a rare diagnosis inadvertently overshadowed his patient’s unique story on a neurology rotation.
See One, Do One, Teach One, Have One
Dr. Michael Callegari assesses the teaching mantra in medicine, and the centrality of empathy in patient care.
Family Practice and Hidden Moments
Dr. Verjee recounts a poignant narrative of his and his medical student’s journey with a longtime patient, Margery, diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, ultimately revealing the profound impact of family medicine on both patients and healthcare professionals.
Transitions
Dr. Ervin Anies reflects on the highs and lows of the transitional intern year with a series of poignant cinquains.
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Ervin (Erv) is beginning his general intern year at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and recently graduated from the Uniformed Services Univerity of the Health Sciences in May 2022. While in medical school, he was the co-director for the on-campus peer-led curriculum aimed to foster conversations about diversity, bias, discrimination, and inclusion in both medicine and the military. His interests include medical education, promoting diversity, and utilizing the arts to augment the healing nature of medicine.