How to Declare Someone Dead: A Brief Reflection
Shannon Fang, medical student, comments on the necessity of processing emotionally stressful encounters in medicine.
Journeys in Education
This category contains student reflections on key moments in their education that gave them new perspective and deeper insights to healthcare.
Medical Student Contributing Writer
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Shannon Fang is a third-year medical student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and received her undergraduate degree from Duke University. Shannon is interested in pursuing a career in medical education, health humanities, and healthcare advocacy. Outside the hospital, she enjoys playing with her cats, crocheting, and watching college basketball.Shannon Fang is a third-year medical student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and received her undergraduate degree from Duke University. Shannon is interested in pursuing a career in medical education, health humanities, and healthcare advocacy. Outside the hospital, she enjoys playing with her cats, crocheting, and watching college basketball.
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.
Triple Crown
Medha Palnati describes an encounter she had with a patient who she met at the Backstretch Clinic, a clinic that serves the undocumented workers that care for the horses at the racetrack, as he was having a myocardial infarction. This encounter highlights the conversation Medha had with this patient while waiting for the ambulance to transport him to the hospital, and the solace that they found in each other in that moment.
One Question More
Medical student Varesh Gorabi is reminded of the importance of empathy during a seemingly routine clinic visit.
The American Muslim Medical Student Association: Intersecting Faith and Medicine to Build Spirituality, Community and Representation
Medical student leaders reflect on the intersectionality of faith and medicine.
I Am Here and Alive
Dr. Ervin Anies explores the struggles and emotional turmoil of medical training, ultimately finding acceptance and self-worth.
How Literature Transformed an Engineer into a Doctor
Medical student Bassel Salka finds opportunities to improve health care by reading works of humorists, fiction writers, and philosophers.
Medicine on Skids
Rural Health is an important but often overlooked sub-specialty in medicine. This piece gives insight to the intricacies of patient care and transport, rural health policy, and the rich, long-term relationships developed in the lives of current practicing rural health physicians.
Orders, Consults, Notes
Intern Ervin Anies assesses the expectation versus the reality of the responsibilities medical students and residents are expected to manage.
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.