Jake Taylor is a fourth-year medical student at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah pursuing a career in general surgery. His clinical and scholarly interests include rural and global surgery, trauma care, health equity, and medical education. Through poetry and medical humanities, he explores vulnerability, stigma, and the role of compassion in caring for patients experiencing serious illness.
In clinic halls where silence drapes the walls, She wanders close, a breath both light and frail. With child she walks, though scarce she eats at all, And hunger’s specter shades her skin so pale. The charts recount her weary, whispered fears, Of weight, of size, the mirrors’ harsh replies; Her hollow eyes reflect the haunted years Where famine looms and reason slowly dies. Once, madness wore a coarser robe of shame, Labeled …
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.
Food production and distribution and medical training and care have been similarly corrupted due to the prioritization of profit and emphasis on end results that value volume over quality by implementing assembly-line-like protocols. This has led to a crisis in preventable chronic disease, and a dearth of primary care physicians; both crises can begin to be healed through the use of small-scale, community based efforts utilizing biodynamic regenerative agriculture and local farmer’s markets, and the provision of care by Direct Primary Care family physicians who can provide affordable and accessible whole-person, whole-life care.
Medical student Sabrina Lazar discovers a local MENA-owned grocery store that offers not only essential ingredients but also a sense of community.
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.
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.
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.
Medical student Leonard Wang presents his views on patient advocacy by exploring the role of patient stories, in particular an anecdote from a recent trip to Guatemala during his winter break.
Medical student Micky Akinrodoye reflects on the importance of advocating for patients by taking into consideration of a myriad of factors influencing their care.
Medical student Katelyn Girtain writes about her experiences as a child of a disabled mother that contributed to the lack of proper insurance and ultimately the occurrence of preventable health issues. She also explores relevant policies and the lack of literature on the impacts of parental disability/lack of insurance on children.
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 Allen Betts explores the often underrated effect of psychosocial determinants and the integral part they play in the influencing health and well-being. Read more to find out how he has come to appreciate the soft skills a physician gleans through patient encounters rather than through books.
Medical Student Contributing Writer, Columnist
Indiana University School of Medicine
Allen is a fourth-year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine. He is a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. Allen plans on pursuing a career in Radiology.
