Medical Humanities Commons^™

A Balance Of Compassion: Fighting Inequality And Creating Access In Medicine, Ananna Kazi

be Still

This article describes my passion for using compassion to fight inequality and creating access in medicine.

Balance And Baking, Idarabasi E. Akpan

be Still

The piece is a personal perspective of how engaging in hobbies can help one find balance and peace. It is about discovering my love for baking and how baking has shaped my life as a person and a medical student. Baking puts me in a somewhat meditative state that grounds me and makes me feel connected to the world at large and to my needs in particular.

Balancing Medical School With Life, Katie Lamar

be Still

A poem about the trials of work life balance in medical school.

The Tight Rope Walk Of A Medical Student, Bhargavi Madhu

be Still

When I think of Balance, I thought of my life as a medical student. It is similar to a tight rope walk where we are walking the line of medical school, aspiring to become physicians while trying to balance school, a family life, hobbies and eventual work life. It is important to find the right balance in order to not face burn out, something that is seen all too often amongst medical professionals.

Restoring Balance, Daniel R. Villanueva Toby

be Still

As a medical student who has received half of their education during the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to portray the internal struggle of medical providers in trying to care for the sick and disabled. A great deal is expected of doctors in this day and age. That stress of expectations versus the innate desire to help others led me to write this poem.

Pulling Out Of Afghanistan, Suzanne Riskin

be Still

This piece was written on a casual day at work when there was not any particular event happening. I realized how much of an impact a decision made so far away from home could have on my personal growth as a medical educator.

Balance, In All Things, Justin S. Straughan

be Still

This poem is a vent for the inherent frustration felt from trying to find a career in and bridge the transition between politics and medicine. It reflects a stubborn determination to not give in to critics' "never-enough-ism" while also trying to be open to improvement and not give in to pride nor cynicism.

Wellness Review 2021, Part 1, Martin Huecker, Brian A. Ferguson, Jacob Shreffler

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: This article presents a curated selection of the wellness literature from January to June of 2021. JWellness editors offer a summary of recent publications within the wellness domain to seek an understanding of both burnout prevention and, more importantly, thriving in the medical profession.

Methods: For the interval of Jan 1 to June 30, 2021, a UofL librarian queried PubMed for empirical research studies, review articles, and editorials related to healthcare professional wellness. Excluding papers related to COVID-19 (due to extensive prior coverage) and editorials/commentaries, the editors narrowed to 43 articles (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, general reviews, and clinical trials) …

The Current, Scott K. Heysell

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Comparative Study On The Two Methods Of Eliciting Singers’ Emotions In Singing: Self-Imagination And Vr Training, Jin Zhang, Ziming Xu, Yueying Zhou, Pengpai Wang, Ping Fu, Xijia Xu, Daoqiang Zhang

Library Scholarship

Emotional singing can affect vocal performance and the audience’s engagement. Chinese universities use traditional training techniques for teaching theoretical and applied knowledge. Self-imagination is the predominant training method for emotional singing. Recently, virtual reality (VR) technologies have been applied in several fields for training purposes. In this empirical comparative study, a VR training task was implemented to elicit emotions from singers and further assist them with improving their emotional singing performance. The VR training method was compared against the traditional self-imagination method. By conducting a two-stage experiment, the two methods were compared in terms of emotions’ elicitation and emotional singing …

Examining Health Inequity In Ancient Egypt, Samantha Rose Gonzalez

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis explores the history of medicine in ancient Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms, and offers a case study highlighting the use of religion and magic in healing and analyzing health inequity. I am interested in medical practices, treatments, diagnosis methods, and access to healthcare in the ancient world. I seek to bridge the gaps and help unify the knowledge surrounding ancient Egyptian medical practices and contribute to the studies in the history of medicine. I explore types of diseases that commonly affected the ancient Egyptians and how they integrated religion and magic into their understanding and treatment …

Reducing “Treble” With Performance Focused Music Programs In Medical School: A Student Driven Needs Assessment To Clarify Participation Barriers Amongst Undergraduate Medical Students, Alexander Tu, Tiffany Truong, Kristy J. Carlson, Matthew J. Brooks, Jayme R. Dowdall

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: The beneficial impact of performing arts involvement within undergraduate medical education, such as music, has been studied, but support for the arts varies significantly by institution. Research has suggested that medical student involvement in the arts can help develop their identities as physicians and may reduce stress and burnout, an increasingly difficult problem within the medical student community.

Methods: We used a mixed-method cross-sectional study design, using a questionnaire and semi-structured interview designed amongst a team of music professionals and healthcare providers with music backgrounds. Out of 511 enrolled medical students, 93 students participated in the study for a …

Medical Schools Ignore The Nature Of Consciousness At Great Cost, Anoop Kumar

Journal of Wellness

The essential question of the relationship between consciousness and matter is ignored in medical school curricula, leading to a machine-like view of the human being that contributes to physician burnout and intellectual dissatisfaction. The evidence suggesting that the brain may not be the seat of consciousness is generally ignored to preserve the worldview of the primacy of matter. By investigating new frameworks detailing the nature of consciousness at different levels of hierarchy, we can bring intellectual rigor to a once opaque subject that supports a fundamental reality about our experience: We are human beings, not only human bodies.

Black And White Health Disparities: Racial Bias In American Healthcare, Yasmeen Almomani

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper explores the historical implications of race in American society that have led to implicit racism in the healthcare system. Racial bias in healthcare against Black people is a factor in the health disparities between Black and white people in America, such as the gap in life expectancy, infant death, and maternal mortality. Black people are more likely to report racial discrimination from healthcare providers, which is a reason for the decreased quality of care received. The past justifications of slavery, the Tuskegee syphilis study, and the medical experimentations on Black women are horrifying but were considered acceptable in …

Demographics, Activities, And Environmental Factors Impact Burnout In A National Survey Of Emergency Medicine Residents, Nicole Battaglioli, Tim P. Moran, Simiao Li-Sauerwine

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Burnout in emergency medicine and in residency training has been well-described. The impact of demographic, individual, and programmatic factors on burnout have not previously been determined in a national survey of emergency medicine residents. This study aimed to identify personal and environmental factors impacting resident burnout in a national sample of emergency medicine residents.

Methods: A prospective Emergency Medicine Resident Wellness Survey was administered in 2017. We surveyed respondents on demographic, personal, and environmental factors; each respondent also completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey. Linear regressions were used to identify variables associated with the Maslach Burnout …

Solanum Jamesii As A Food Crop: History And Current Status Of A Unique Potato, David Kinder, John Bamberg, Lisbeth Louderback, Bruce Pavlik, Alfonso Del Rio

Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship

Solanum jamesii is a wild potato found in the US southwest. There is ample evidence that this potato was used by ancestral Puebloans as a food source, where some researchers think it was used as a starvation food while others consider it to be regular food source. Currently this potato is being grown by Native Americans, notably the Navajo, as a specialty food as well as a food crop. There are several attributes to this potato that make it especially suitable for development as our climate changes and food needs become more demanding, including its drought tolerance and ability to …

Teaching Philippine Literature And Illness: Finding Cure In Humanities, John Paolo Sarce

English Faculty Publications

Health and illness as themes are uncommonly being touched in literature classrooms. Other than the lack of interdisciplinary studies or specialists in this field in the Philippines; often teachers are also confronted with tons of materials that they are either overwhelmed to teach or find it difficult to deliver on their classes. This is the goal of this paper; help teachers gain confidence and basic knowledge of teaching literature that discusses health and illness especially at this time of history. Helping both teachers and students to understand and appreciate literature as a space for developing empathy while also honing their …

Art And Empathy: Self Discovery In A Dark Forest, Younser Lee

Graduate School of Art Theses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people report feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress as the world moves at an increasingly rapid pace and faces unprecedented challenges. However, many ignore these negative thoughts and fail to acknowledge them as a serious issue. My art, which shares my own experiences, creates safe, cathartic places for viewers to think about their own emotional experiences. Crucial to this process is my use of daily objects and the creation of individualized, participatory, and multisensory experiences.

My art relates to daily life and the negative emotions that we experience daily. I …

Loss Of Obstetric Services In Rural Appalachia: A Qualitative Study Of Community Perceptions, Caroline R. Efird, David Dry, Rachel F. Seidman

Journal of Appalachian Health

Background: As rural hospitals across the United States increasingly downsize or close, the availability of inpatient obstetric services continues to decline in rural areas. In rural Appalachia, the termination of obstetric services threatens to exacerbate the existing risk of adverse birth outcomes for women and infants, yet less is known about how the cessation of these services affects the broader community.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how the loss of local obstetric services affects perceptions of healthcare among multi-generational residents of a remote, rural Appalachian community in western North Carolina.

Methods: An interdisciplinary team of researchers …

Beliefs Of Translators About Medical Spanish Pamphlets, Margaret Coulter

Honors Theses

This paper addresses the beliefs of professional Spanish medical translators regarding the use of dialect variation in medical Spanish translation and the resulting effects on the level of healthcare attained by Spanish speaking patients in the United States. The health gap between English-speaking and non-English patients is explored as it relates to inadequate translation of medical information and instructions leading to poorer health outcomes and higher readmission rates among Spanish speakers.

A Moment Of Peace: An Artistic Representation Of The Influence Of Healthcare On Social Disruption, Nafisa Choudhury

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

This original pen-and-ink artwork features a lily on the water symbolizing peace. As war, distrust, chaos and coups wreak havoc throughout many developing nations, healthcare workers and public health officials should be encouraged that we do in fact have a part to play in managing the human health affected by the disruption. Health work can provide a zone of comfort, spread solidarity and understanding, and manage the human toll of war. Healthcare workers have major roles in peace-keeping efforts as a result of these determinations and their impact on peace should be acknowledged and lauded. We hope that as we …

After Code Blue, Komal Kinger

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Starting intern year comes with its own challenges and learning opportunities, especially in a pandemic. In this paper I reflect on one such situation. The code and passing of a particular patient earlier this year taught me many lessons and it has impacted the type of physician I aspire to be.

Poem, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

"Napë" By Ernesto Casiquiare

Spanish and English Versions

Table Of Contents, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

“Ichachu”: Ontological Diversity For Assembling Common Futures, Kaliana Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

The present work explores the role of discursive analyses of language as potent elements in networks of discourse and practice. A particular focus is with how language functions in multiple, overlapping registers, and how this affects its ability to motivate and coalesce diverse actors into communities of practice. In particular, usages of sovereignty, food sovereignty, and ontology are explored as a means for understanding the process of cross-cultural eco-social action. Fundamental to these analyses is the precept that registers of language represent an epistemic diversity always operating in collaborations for biocultural sustainability. By “eco-social action,” it is meant any practice, …

Desingularizing “Self” And “Nature”: Bruno Latour’S Politics Of Nature And Lorraine Daston’S Against Nature, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

"... looking to embrace “the whole of nature” with the “totality of one’s self” is a gluttonous impossibility that betrays the real non-trope insatiable consumerism ..."

Book Review Jeff Vandermeer (2021), Hummingbird Salamander, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Editorial Introduction Vol 2 (1) 2021

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Carlos Castaneda (1925-1998): Reading Between His Lines, A Summary Judgment, Jay C. Fikes Phd

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Don Juan is a fictional character. Yaqui in Sonora and Arizona have no history of peyote rituals. These two facts help explain why, by 1975, Castaneda’s followers were seeking shamans comparable to Don Juan among the Huichol of Mexico. In recent years peyote tourists have invaded the sacred land where Huichol venerate the peyote spirit. The rising tide of tourists in that area is rapidly depleting peyote and has stimulated Mexican authorities to incarcerate Huichol peyote hunters (Fikes, 1993; 2013). In the early 1990s Castaneda created a cult, Tensegrity, which taught disciples stylized movements combining “tai chi, modern dance and …

Nostalgia, The Liminal, And Feral Love In Guillermo Enrique Hudson’S “Green Mansions”, George Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.