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.
Mental Health and Wellness
This category contains reflections on how students maintain their mental health in school and deal with the stress of burnout.
Editor, Medical Student Contributing Writer
Albany Medical College
Sabrina is an MS2 at Albany Medical College interested in plastic surgery. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Cell Biology with a minor in Professional Writing from the University of California, Davis. A proud Assyrian-American, she is passionate about mentoring fellow first-generation and underrepresented students in medicine. She can be found studying at local coffee shops, playing volleyball and water polo, or working on home improvement and gardening projects with her family.
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.
Transitions
Dr. Ervin Anies reflects on the highs and lows of the transitional intern year with a series of poignant cinquains.
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.
Orders, Consults, Notes
Intern Ervin Anies assesses the expectation versus the reality of the responsibilities medical students and residents are expected to manage.
Do Not Strike Out: A Patient’s Story About Accessing Mental Health Care
Third-year medical student Thomas Gagliardi reflects on the socioeconomic barriers to accessing health care, cultural competency and mental health.
Yearning for Yesterday
Shivani Sundaram, a third-year medical student, explores the need for humanity and patience in the face of algorithms and checkboxes.
The Medical Student Behind the Mask
Rachel Lawson describes her challenging experiences during her first year of medical school at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and how her experience was profoundly impacted by a vaccination clinic.
One Act Can Impact a Lifetime
Medical student Ta’Nae Harrod reflects on working with a young patient regarding her dietary and mental wellness needs.
The Ward as Medicine
The Ward as Medicine is about how one’s fellow patients on the psychiatry ward can act as mirrors, teachers and inspirations to a patient. Specifically, it is about a mom who, hospitalized for suicidality stemming from her guilt and anger over how she has mothered her children, gets reconnected with the identity of motherhood while interacting with others on the unit.
Changes
Medical student Saud Rehman has written a collection of poems focusing on the lockdown of March 2020 with artwork to give a visual representation of how he felt. Often times the manifestations of moods unrelated to coursework go overlooked, especially in medicine, and Saud hopes that these provide a representation of the humanity behind students going through difficult times.
Medical Student Contributing Writer
CUNY School of Medicine
Saud is a first generation third year medical student at the CUNY School of medicine from Brooklyn. Saud has interests in interventional radiology, patient centered care, and educational medicine. Saud uses poetry and artistic visuals as a form of expression & catharsis. His other interests include hiking, bike-riding, cooking, and basketball.