The Pause
Katherine Panushka asks readers to reflect and acknowledge that our patients’ stories extend beyond their final moments in her poem, “The Pause.”
Uncategorized
Medical Student Contributing Writer
University of Utah School of Medicine
I am a fourth-year medical student at the University of Utah School of Medicine. I was born in Ogden, UT. A few miles south at Westminster College in SLC, UT I studied English Literature. I entered medical school motivated by tandem interests in personal narratives and medical science. I am inspired to bear witness to the complex, often intimate stories that bring patients into my care. In addition to my expanding interests in medicine, I enjoy spending time with my cat, Alice and my dog, Ishi. I love adventuring outside, playing center midfielder on my indoor soccer team, cooking delicious pescatarian food.
Headlights
Medical student Joaquin Zetina details a poignant example, illustrating the often overlooked and nuanced barriers and adversities faced by immigrant students that can shape their perspectives of themselves as well as society.
When We Love
Unhealthy relationship exist in the world of health care and beyond. Medical student Alesia Voice explores, through this poem, how to operate within a significant imbalance in relationships.
The Art of Negotiation
Fourth-year medical student Bianca Nguyen likens one of her doctor-patient relationships to a blueprint on how to refine the skill of negotiation as a health care provider. Read more to find out the pearls she gleaned from these encounters.
Surviving a War: Lessons from Pediatric Refugees
Medical student Lewis Wong describes what he gleaned from a seemingly run-of-the-mill clinical encounter with a 14-year-old refugee in his pediatric rotation, and how this sparked introspection into the lessons learned along his medical school journey as well as the core values he hopes to imbue as a community physician.
Rudolph as My Patient
“Medicine is about so much more. Medicine includes teaching, caring and sharing empathy with others.” Read more to hear about how Negin Khosravi’s experience with one of her pediatric patients and her stuffed animal reignited her passion for medicine.
Basic Life Support
This sequence of events took place during my second clerkship, OB/GYN, and I knew there was no way I couldn’t write about it. I wrote this for my own catharsis but it also reaffirmed the importance of compassion, competency and awareness in medicine.
When I First Wore My White Coat
As a young immigrant from the Philippines, medical student Russyan recounts his journey, through verse, from his village to medical school and the challenges, lessons and values learned along the way.
My Hero
Showing love in times of loss, being a beacon of hope, taking time to spend with family and regaining our humanity are just some of the values medical student writer Karl Heward emphasizes should be reflected in our practice of medicine while demonstrating how personal tragedy courageously inspired him to adopt this mindset.
Struggling to Find My Place
There is something honorable about any career and focusing on that positive aspect is what we should all strive to do. The world works on a balance with each profession having its own significance and place. Sometimes we just needed to be happy with our choice, and live life as it comes.
First Times in Medicine
Medical school is a series of firsts.
The I Do’s … and Don’ts of Medicine
Our task in donning roles of professionalism as health care providers comes hand-in-hand with all the aspects of our identity and the tolls that come with it. This is especially significant as the younger generation, consisting of more and more intersectional identities, becomes more commonplace not only in society at large but also in the health care world. However, when this ideal of professionalism is compounded by someone like me — a minority woman colored by a recurrent, pervasive backdrop of objectification for pleasure by Caucasian cultures; a female person of color who feels the need to tread carefully to succeed in a field historically dominated by men — where does it leave us?
Managing Editor
Emory University School of Medicine
Jen is a fourth-year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2016, she graduated from Emory with a Bachelor of Arts in English concentrated in multi-ethnic contemporary American literature and a minor in Music. Jen is passionate about addressing healthcare disparities, highlighting intersectionality and patient-centered care, narrative medicine, and mentorship/education. Aside from medicine, she also enjoys poetry, piano, tennis, indie concerts, Asian-American media, and spending too much time in coffeeshops. After graduation, she aspires to pursue a career in Internal Medicine.