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.
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 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 MacKenzie Adams reflects on her experience with a patient who received news that he was dying via an interpreter. She addresses the importance of improving care for non-English speakers.
Medical student Denisha McCurchin shares one of her final moments in the hospital with her grandmother who had a stroke. She tells the story through the senses of sight and hearing and reflects on the care she wishes her grandmother received as well as the care she endeavors to deliver as a future doctor.
This essay offers a personal reflection on hospice care and celebration of life from the perspective of a medical student addressing her late grandmother.
Ana Jimenez, a fourth-year medical student, describes her encounter with Micah, a coffee-making, DJ-ing, emergency medicine resident.
Medical student Olivia Dhaliwal reflects on the weight of medical school and her feelings of “hollow”
Medical student Micky Akinrodoye reflects on his experiences of being a part of the care team for a complicated patient. With the understanding that every patient has a unique story and life experiences, Micky shares his outlook on the type of physician he would like to become in the future.
Medical student Sidney Adenya recollects a particularly momentous patient experience, which exemplified how words can be a strikingly powerful therapeutic tool of a physician. Read more to find out how this helped him reaffirm his passion for medicine through this reflective piece.
As a storyteller, the author vowed to lead with the person’s name in an effort to uplift the subject of the story. This all changed when the author began anatomy lab during medical school.
Medical Student Contributor
Indiana University School of Medicine
I fell into medicine because it bridges the boundless world of science with individual stories of humanity. Having a father from Ecuador and a mother from the states, I came to see the importance of listening and learning from voices different from myself. Over time, I have grown an excitement for art — not merely by creating, but by attempting to discover the art in others and helping others discover the art in themselves. I write to make sense of my own experience and the experience of others. In my free time, I enjoy rock climbing, playing guitar, and thrift shopping. Going into my third year, I am looking to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine.
