Medical Humanities Commons^™

Between Rounds And Resolve, Faizan Sheraz

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

“Between Rounds and Resolve” is a narrative poem chronicling the introspective journey of an internist transitioning toward a subspecialty in gastroenterology. Through poetic reflection, the piece captures the emotional cadence of clinical rounds, the quiet resilience forged in patient care, and the evolving sense of purpose that guides a physician toward deeper specialization. This work explores themes of identity, transformation, and professional growth, offering a humanistic lens on the road less traveled within medicine. It aims to resonate with readers, navigating their own paths of change, reaffirming the value of reflection and resolve in shaping a meaningful career in health …

Lewy Glacier, João Guilherme Bochnia Küster

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

This poem explores the complex intersection of memory, identity and the challenges imposed by Lewy body dementia, using the metaphor of a lost expedition traversing an isolated icy landscape. A profound sense of solitude reflects the disconnection that accompanies the dementia and tremors that follow, while also highlighting the danger of memory loss with mythological sirens representing its perilous allure (with some inspiration from The Odyssey). Through vivid imagery and lyrical language, it delves into the complexities of cognitive decline, providing an artistic reflection on dementia and offering a unique view of the emotional landscape of those affected by …

A Resident, Angelina Hong

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

We are all passengers in this life, with unique trails and destinations but many common intersections along the way. I have always been fascinated by the multidimensional nature of the hospital—a place of hope, love, pain, mourning, reflection all at once, not only for patients, but also for friends, family, and employees. At times, journeys become so layered and intertwined that the lines between these different roles are blurred, seemingly dissolving the classical hierarchy we rely on to differentiate physicians, residents, nurses, patients etc. At the end of the day, we are all people persevering and growing the best we …

Sacred Oath Of Healing - Volume 9

be Still

No abstract provided.

Ferocious (And Tender) Survival, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

A review of Blood Loss: a Love Story of AIDS, Activism, and Art, by Keiko Lane (Duke University Press, 2024) in the Anarchist Review of Books

Behind The Curtain, Angelina Hong

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

One of my favorite themes in medicine is the concept of identity. Medicine is layered. It is continually saving lives, expanding in capabilities, and recruiting new students. But how does it shape us, and where does one draw the line between self and profession?

Physicians are classically a symbol of hope and healing. But medicine is challenging physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Add on top of that the daily burdens of our personal lives, and the responsibility can become quite heavy, making it difficult to walk with a smile every day. There is a time to stand behind a “curtain”, for …

Lyrical Stillness, Madhav Patel

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

“Lyrical Stillness” is a poem I wrote during my radiation oncology rotation, during which I was provided the opportunity to learn more about multidisciplinary cancer care while delving deeper into radiotherapy. Cancer can be an overwhelming disease process physically, psychologically, and emotionally. Patients undergoing treatment often experience stress and anxiety with the uncertainty of their prognoses. In this poem, I describe a patient receiving radiation therapy whom I enjoyed speaking to about his favorite hobby: bird watching. During his subsequent radiation treatment sessions, I decided to play a CD of mockingbirds singing in a tropical forest, in the hopes it …

Our Web, Alia Abdullah

be Still

Alia would like to acknowledge Ingmar Bergman's film, Through a Glass Darkly.

Afterword And After The Ward: The Poetry Cure, Abriana Jette, Margarita Sverdlova

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

What impact might poetry have on an individual's psychosomatic system? This piece connects current research in occupational therapy with the acts of writing, listening, and reading poetry.

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.

Search History Of A Medical Student, Brian R. Smith

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

A Matter Of Perspective, Andrew M. Joseph

be Still

"A Matter of Perspective" is a poem that attempts to rationalize from where the power of conflict is derived. Additionally, it offers a possible perspective about conflict that may be perceived as counterintuitive.

A Call To Create: Poetry As Healing And One Nurse’S Self-Discovery, Kim Cornett Henry, Kim Cornett Henry

English Theses

Florence Nightingale’s vision for nursing has changed greatly in the past one hundred and fifty years, with nursing’s identity replaced with an emphasis on science over caring. The fast-paced, technologically sophisticated environments, designed to meet the declining health of an American public, have resulted in nurses who are being pulled away from nurse-to-patient caring acts and the reasons they felt called to become nurses. These changes have had detrimental psychological and emotional effects on nurses and are especially evident in Intensive Care nurses. Expressive writing as poetry, autoethnography, and participation in vibrant writing communities offer nurses experiences for healing, voice, …

The Current, Scott K. Heysell

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

Still Learning: Covid Through The Eyes Of A Medical Student, Alexis Strahan

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

As a first-year medical student when the COVID-19 pandemic found a foothold, I felt an overwhelming amount of emotions that accompanied the pandemic’s spread. Fear, although a reasonable choice, was not the first emotion that I experienced. In fact, it was a general feeling of paralysis. I had not six months prior taken an oath to commit my career and life to the service of the public’s health care needs, yet I could provide little more than the textbook knowledge of biochemistry or genetics from my first semester of learning. My hands felt unarmed and unskilled for the fight. What …

Consented End, Rabia Mazhar

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

This poem is a reflection upon my personal experience of taking care of a young patient with post-partum sepsis and multi-organ failure following the delivery of her second child. She was able to spend one night at home with her family before suddenly decompensating and becoming encephalopathic. In her last moments awake, she relayed to the EMS her wishes of being placed in hospice. The poem narrates her spouse’s internal struggle after respecting the patient’s wishes of withdrawal of care.

Anatomic By Adam Dickinson, Heather Houser

The Goose

Review of Adam Dickinson's Anatomic.

"Free Indirect Suicide: An Unfinished Fugue In H Minor", Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

In this lyric essay/work of creative nonfiction (listed among “Notable Essays & Literary Nonfiction” in Best American Essays 2020), Seo-Young Chu uses poetry, autotheory, and creative nonfiction to explore the generational trauma/postmemory han she inherited from her parents and the importance of destigmatizing mental illness through dialogue.

Unbroken, Masood Mohammed

be Still

Unbroken is a short, powerful poem describing some of the all too familiar difficulties that students and physicians face in the hospital and medical field as a whole.

Beginnings, Nehal J. Shah

Akesis

The beginning of one thing signifies the end of another – for one to start, another must end. With that said, under karmic and Hindu belief, we are constantly in a cycle of beginnings, and endings, until we achieve “moksha” – true oneness with God. Furthermore, within each cycle, there are four stages of life that one hopes to go through, carrying out the ideal goals and progress of each existence. Therefore, this life ultimately is a new beginning to an old soul – a soul that has traveled and journeyed upon eons of time to find happiness, spirituality, completeness …