Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Residency

  • Regalia

    Nancy L. HagoodCharleston, South Carolina, United States My medical school graduation regalia has hung in my closet for two years. It will never be worn. In spring 2019, I was a fourth-year medical student, planning to graduate in May and move 500 miles north to work as an intern at my first-choice residency program. After…

  • When a medical student becomes a patient

    Andrew GallagherBurlington, Vermont, United States Elliot pointed to the ultrasound monitor. “What is this?” he said slowly, trailing off. His finger was on the large, black sac occupying the entire bottom of the screen. We both said nothing, attempting to recall our anatomy. “Wait, where is your kidney?” I stared at the screen, disoriented. “I…

  • Maintaining a moral compass in medicine

    Jeffrey LeePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States It seemed like just another day during my third-year surgical rotation until I heard Mrs. W. cry. It was during daily rounds in the bustling ICU, and our team was squeezed around a single computer outside another patient’s room. I tried my best to pay attention to our discussion, but…

  • Lost in translation

    Jonathan XianHouston, Texas, United States At the start of residency, you should make a list of five things you value most and think carefully about which ones you can live without. Cross them off one by one until only one is left, and that one is what you get to keep. My one thing was…

  • A very interesting case

    Anjiya SulaimanKarachi, Pakistan By my fourth year of medical school I had learned to distill patients into a pure clinical form. Individual characteristics are routinely and expertly tweezed and condensed into an intricate framework of pathology, pharmacology, and medical jargon: we call them “cases.” I met S during my first week of an inpatient pediatric…

  • The Craft of Medical Reflection

    JTH ConnorSt. John’s, Newfoundland Allan Peterkin is a professor of psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. As a teacher and author he is probably best known for his survival guide to post graduate medical studies, Staying Human During Residency Training: How to Survive and Thrive after Medical School, which is now…

  • Medicine’s old-school technology

    Katie TaylorSan Francisco, CA I am six months into my first year of residency as a doctor. And my experience so far has been sorrowfully screen-dominated. If aliens were to come down and observe a day in the life, I am afraid they’d assume the computer is the patient and the patient’s room the place…