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.
These poem stanzas help to provide further fidelity on the small specialty that is Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R). While many other specialties focus on specific organs, “our organ” is function and this piece hopefully sheds some light on how we preserve it and improve it in all the patients we treat.
Medical student recollects hospitalization with pneumonia as a pivotal childhood experience that shaped his values. The care he received from dedicated clinicians and his family instilled trust and resilience, inspiring his pursuit of medicine. These reflections resurfaced during his white coat ceremony, affirming his commitment to embodying these principles in his future practice.
The poem describes the profound impact of an encounter between Catherin Potin, the narrator, recovering from a motor vehicle accident, and a young patient with a similar experience. Throughout our interaction, the patient’s strength and resilience illuminate a path towards healing, showing the narrator the power of shared vulnerability in overcoming trauma. This encounter serves as a reminder of the reciprocal nature of healing in medicine and the personal growth that can arise from patient interactions.
Taylor Selby wrote this poem while trying to manage her time between studying for boards and her grandmas birthday party. To her, it means prioritizing her relationships and mental health while still working towards the goal to be an intelligent and caring doctor.
This piece is inspired by a patient encounter with a middle-aged woman who was recently diagnosed with a severe and malignant cancer. I saw her in the primary care setting, and she was undergoing chemotherapy at that time. She had a unique demeanor about her and she shared with me how she waited all her life to do the things she really wanted to do and now she was unable to do a lot of those things. She told me her and her friend now share a joke whenever they are debating doing something fun/risky/random in which they say, “What are you waiting for, chemo?”
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dr. Ervin Anies explores the struggles and emotional turmoil of medical training, ultimately finding acceptance and self-worth.
Medical student Bassel Salka finds opportunities to improve health care by reading works of humorists, fiction writers, and philosophers.
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.
Medical Student Contributing Writer
Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine: Heritage Hall
Talia began writing for MiM her first year of medical school and also enjoys reading, singing, and hanging out with her eight younger siblings. Talia plans to graduate in 2026 and finish a residency in OB/GYN.
