Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Education

  • Saving the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Mary Elizabeth Garrett. Bust from portrait by John Singer Sargent. Via Wikimedia.  “For to this lady, more than any other single person, save Johns Hopkins himself, does the School of Medicine owe its being.”1 – Alan Chesney on Mary Elizabeth Garrett   Johns Hopkins (1795–1873) was born in Maryland, one…

  • What is the point?

    Aariya Srinivasan Chennai, India   The author (right) performing a procedure. I am yet another young doctor struggling to find a place and purpose in this world. When I was in medical school, all I could ever think about was how to get through the next exam. Most of us do. We sit for days…

  • The middle zone

    Alfred DavidPort Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria What sacrifices must be made in order to practice medicine? Choosing to study medicine is never a choice that should made lightly. The scope of knowledge in its various disciplines is vast, requiring an immense amount of dedication and attention to detail. Finances, social life, and a portion of one’s…

  • The fainting medical student

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   Abandoned. Painting by James Tissot, c.1881–2. Via Bridgeman Images on Fine Art America. Public domain. “Fall backward if you faint, and not across the patient.”1 – Surgeon Sir Lancelot Sprat, in the film Doctor in the House   The squeamishness of the beginning medical student or intern during the dissection…

  • A day in the team room

    Kirin SaintAnn Arbor, MI Today is Monday, May 2. The day starts before the sun has risen, before pink-lavender hues warm the earth, as two internal medicine interns slink in, yawning and bleary eyed, careful not to spill their coffee onto their well-worn scrubs. The residents stride into the room, greet one another, lament the…

  • Learning the vocabulary of medicine (and other foreign languages)

    Edward Tabor Bethesda, Maryland, United States   Some of the sources of medical vocabulary. Photo by author. Both of my parents were physicians, and their discussions were often medical. One weekend when I was about four years old, I listened to one such conversation at lunch and interrupted to ask, “When I grow up, will…

  • Not just for the sake of ourselves

    Florence GeloPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney is a painting that I have used often to teach close looking to medical and theological students. The painting is full of details: color, lines, and textures. Faces and body language serve as vessels for emotion and are abundant and finely detailed. It…

  • India’s oldest medical schools

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom 15 August 2022 marked the 75th anniversary of Indian independence from British rule. Since independence, the Indian medical diaspora has successfully settled in countries around the world and contributed greatly to their health care systems. Outside India, few are familiar with the history of modern Indian medicine. India was long…

  • Movie review: Première Année (The Freshmen)

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   “Never memorize something you can look up.” – Albert Einstein “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill   Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash. Première Année (literally “First Year”) is a 2018 French film. In it, we meet and follow two young men in their first year of…

  • Ragging

    P. Ravi ShankarKuala Lumpur, Malaysia The corridor was long, narrow, and brightly painted. The carpet was torn in a few places and the red wall paint was beginning to peel off. Sixteen of us walked through the corridor into the restaurant. The food was tasty, but we were too scared to enjoy the meal. Our…