Medical Humanities Commons^™

And Yet, Angelina Hong

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

As healthcare workers, invested in the wellbeing of our patients while also hoping to grow as individuals, we sometimes tend to view our jobs as a rigid duality—we are either “in love” with our practice and persevere flawlessly through all hardship, or we are “burnt out,” coldhearted, and defeated by the heavy workload and expectations of medicine.

In reality, we all sit somewhere in the middle of a blurry spectrum, balancing out physical, mental, and emotional pain with the immense honor of saving and cherishing human life, while simultaneously struggling to reconcile our altruistic goals with realistic but necessary human …

Ambivalence At 10 000 Feet, Marc Perlman

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

The transition from medical neophyte to seasoned physician is a gradual process spanning the course of many years. However, there are various milestones throughout the experience that capture increases in decision-making capacity and responsibility, such as the switch from pre-clinical to clinical medical education. Medical students in their clinical years are endowed with an abundance of knowledge from their pre-clinical years and are just beginning to synthesize and apply that information to patient care. “Ambivalence at 10 000 Feet” captures a reflection of a third-year medical student on the theoretical decision to provide emergency medical care in the absence of …

My Heart, Mina Bhatnagar

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

A poem expressing a daughter’s love for her father through their shared passions for cardiology and medicine.