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.
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Medical Student Contributing Writer
New York Medical College
Thomas is a third year medical student at New York Medical College. He was selected to the AOA academic honor society in his third year of medical school and elected by his classmates to the Gold Humanism Honor Society for his compassionate care to patients. He has research interests in musculoskeletal pathology, neurosurgical outcomes, and basic science parasitology. He enjoys volunteer firefighting, recreational softball, skiing, and spending time with family in his free time.
Yearning for Yesterday
Shivani Sundaram, a third-year medical student, explores the need for humanity and patience in the face of algorithms and checkboxes.
An Unanticipated Learning Issue
Emma Stenz’s first time witnessing a patient’s death helped her realize the role of a physician in maintaining emotional composure and acting with nonmaleficence towards the patient, both in life and in death.
Love Language
Medical student Saud Rehman writes a poem about understanding other people.
The Short White Coat: A Doorway into Another’s Vulnerability
Medical student Analisa Narro pounders on the power and responsibility she has to patients when she dons on her white coat.
PSA: Tokenism is Not Diversity
In this piece, Afua Ofori-Darko discusses how medical education has focused on tokenism on a way to achieve diversity. Specifically, Afua discusses her journey as the token Black girl and how tokenism harms URiM students and the institutions to which they belong.
Fight for Freedom
Having been born and raised in Iran, Negin Khosravi has experienced horrors that are untold. As ongoing protests happen in Iran and as an aspiring physician leader, Negin hopes to shed some light on what is happening and advocate for people. It is time for racism, discrimination and lack of freedom to end.
Beyond the Clinic
Joseph Conti, a medical student, discusses understanding patients and their families and prioritizing what they value during care delivery.
All-American Reject
In a spoken word piece, medical student Hannah Clarke writes about her experiences being a medical student in an unjust healthcare system run by unjust hospital corporations.
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.
Medical Student Contributing Writer
David Geffen SOM at UCLA
Nicole is a fourth-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering. She is applying to psychiatry with the intention of pursuing a child and adolescent fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys playing tricks on her cat.
