Education - Hektoen International

Louis Braille: wondrous gift, punishing recipe

March 16, 2022

Lauren Hill Walnut Cove, North Carolina, United States Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States Louis Braille (1809–1852), blinded and ultimately dying by “opportunity” … but not before inventing a wondrous gift to humanity. From De Tampon, 1925. Via Wikimedia. No known restrictions on publication. “… as need, the mother of all inventions, taught […]

Neurophobia or neuroavoidance: a student or educator issue?

February 9, 2022

Kelsey Andrews Jack Riggs Morgantown, West Virginia, United States “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” – Albert Einstein The human brain – perhaps the most complex and interesting structure in the universe. That statement should make neuroscience a subject of attraction, not avoidance […]

The “Ne-Uro” mess

January 10, 2022

Nishitha Bujala Hyderabad, Telangana, India Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash When I took my oral exams in the final year of medical school, I was tested on surgical instruments by an external professor. He appeared to be in his sixties and stern. As a conversation starter, he asked my favorite specialty. “Neurology,” I […]

The good, the bad, and the regrettable

October 28, 2021

Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden “Man . . . cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he runs, that chain runs with him.” — Frederick Nietzsche Lab coat and scrubs. Photo by Samir. 2006. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. What follows is a description of different aspects of […]

Novice doctor at Guy’s Hospital in 1964

October 21, 2021

Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom Fig 1. “Entrance into that most noble Public Charity and admirable Medical Establishment Guy’s Hospital” Founded 1721 by Thomas Guy it was intended for the incurables rejected by neighboring St. Thomas’s Hospital—the foreground scene shows this restriction had ceased. The building on the east (left), Boland House was […]

The “weak” intern

October 15, 2021

Htet Khine Reno, Nevada, United States Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash “She is quite weak,” I overheard two senior residents say about one of my co-interns. I tried to tune out the conversation—I did not have enough time or mental capacity to comprehend what being “weak” entailed. I was busy writing notes, answering […]

Healing literature

October 8, 2021

Scott D. Vander Ploeg Cocoa Beach, Florida, United States Dr. Vander Ploeg (Ph.D.) checks the lit pressure of the complete works of William Shakespeare published in The Riverside Shakespeare. Photo by Audrey Kon. Courtesy of the author. I taught English courses for thirty years at a community college in western Kentucky. One of the […]

An essential attitude of the heart

October 1, 2021

Florence Gelo Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Andy Warhol, 1970. By Alice Neel. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Timothy Collins. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art / Licensed by Scala / Art Resource, NY I project an image of the painting, Andy Warhol, on the screen in the medical school classroom. […]

The use of television series in medical education

October 1, 2021

Gulmira Derbissalina Nur-Sultan city, Kazakhstan “House M.D.” by showbiz kids is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 Medically themed television series are popular among future doctors. Students and trainees can imagine their future work, including the clinical setting, relationships with colleagues and superiors, communication with patients and their relatives, and consultations and advice from senior […]

Under the lime tree: medicine, poetry, and the education of the senses

September 10, 2021

Alan Bleakley Sennen, West Cornwall, United Kingdom Portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), by Peter Vandyke, 1795. Edited by Sue Bleakley. When in the summer of 1797 Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s wife Sara accidentally spilled hot milk over his foot, causing serious burns such that Coleridge could not walk, he sat in the garden of […]