A physician assistant ruminates about the cycle of life, of sunrise and sunset—and how we can better appreciate each waking moment.
Read moreA Sound Mind in a Sound Body, a reflection by poet Anastasia Vassos
© Pillar of Light by Jacqueline Pflaum-Carlson. Spring 2022 Intima
A writer and poet finds inspiration in the body’s architecture and corporeal underpinnings.
Read moreThe Gifts Reserved for Age: A Reflection by Richard Scott Morehead
A professor of medicine reminisces about his former student, whose work appears alongside his own in this very journal.
Read moreWho Knows How the Body Turns? A Reflection on Lyme and Rheumatoid Arthritis by Sheila Luna
A writer living with rheumatoid arthritis finds companionship in another writer living with Lyme disease. Although these two diseases may be different, they continue to manifest in similar ways.
Read morePoets on Poets: A Look Back and Forward by Ellen Goldsmith
A poet reflects on what companion poets and their poetry can offer us in the face of unexpected illness and loss.
Read moreWhat's a "Good Patient"? A Reflection by Jacqueline Ellis
A scholar wonders if and how she can become her doctor’s favorite patient—and what that may mean for the sacred patient-physician relationship.
Read moreHow to "Do" Breast Cancer by Dena Brownstein
A retired physician not only examines her personal experience with cancer, but also questions whether there is a single “right” way to perform a cancer diagnosis.
Read moreOn Caring and Suffering by Michael Evans, William Doan, Kiernan Riley, Kalei Kowalchik, and Logan DeSanto
A nurse offers a plea in the face of a worsening pandemic and increasing burnout among healthcare professionals.
Read moreThe Hospital Gift Shop: An Unlikely Refuge by Maureen Hirthler
An emergency physician fondly looks back on an unlikely refuge within the hospital: the gift shop.
Read moreWhat’s the Right Way to Die? And Where? A reflection by poet Kathryn Paul
Can we decide where we should die? A writer and former caregiver reflects on offering comfort during one’s final moments.
Read moreCuring Bodies: How Uncertainty and Variation Shape Early Experiences in Medicine by Anna Harvey Bluemel
A physician reflects on the uncertainty that comes with the study of the human body, and the unpredictability that comes with the pursuit of medicine.
Read moreThe Role of the Medical Television Drama in Cinemeducation
What is the purpose of the now-ubiquitous medical television drama in the age of pandemics? And whose voice does it center: the physician’s or the patient’s?
Read moreTo Enhance, Supplement, and Support
What is the physician’s role in the clinical encounter, and what is their responsibility to the patient? A physician reflects.
Read moreOn Witnessing Another’s Pain—Or Is It Our Own?
When one exists in close proximity to the pain of another, whose testimony is it? A scholar reflects on the shared experience that can result from suffering.
Read moreHands-On versus Hands-Off Medicine: Reflections of a Surgeon
Inspired by two pieces written by medical students, a surgeon reflects on his own experiences in medicine and the role that human touch plays in the clinical encounter.
Read moreThe Wisdom of the Pomegranate: A Reflection on Poetry and Mothers by Sina Foroutanjazi
The void, the empty feeling of loss; this is perhaps what connects Ceren Ege’s Dictum Wisdom (Intima, Fall 2021) and Pomegranate Protocol (Intima, Fall 2021) above and beyond their chronological relationship.
Read moreWhat the Dying Need by Rachel Prince
Shortly after reading Vigil, I stumbled upon Sara Baker’s poem, “What Do the Dying Want?” (Spring 2015). In this work, Baker explores the titular question by wondering how healthcare professionals, hospice workers, or even caregivers and family members can properly address the needs of the dying – is the correct way through words and stories, reminiscing, music, meaningful touch, or just holding space and being present?
Read moreTo Be Healed by Olamide Adejumo →
On the 31st of December 2019, a report was made by the Wuhan Municipal Commission to
the World Health Organization about a novel coronavirus through a cluster of cases of
pneumonia. This first-of-its-kind report subsequently led to series of global health crises that
ultimately led to declaring the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.
This pandemic has in the past years revealed the socioeconomic inequalities that have plagued
the country and are deeply rooted in racial disparities despite government efforts at ensuring
equitable distribution of resources.
Read moreWays of Knowing (and Not Knowing) When the Prognosis is Terminal by writer PK Kennedy
"Right in here, remove your clothes. Underwear and bra can stay on but put the robe on so it's open in the back, not the front, okay?"
The words are coming at me in a torrent; I can’t understand any of them, but I know the drill.
I throw my stuff in a bag, take a deep breath, and open the door to the inpatient surgical waiting room. It smells like alcohol and ice and has no memories I can sense. Am I the first person that’s ever come here?
“You’re here for the lumbar?”
I cut her off before she could say puncture. "Yes."
Read moreWritten in the Stars: A Reflection on Youth Cancer by Will Moody
For every young adult diagnosed with cancer, a time comes when we ask ourselves a question.
Why?
Why did this happen to me? Why now? They are not questions we want an answer to, but as humans, we crave finding meaning in our lives. We do it because the alternative is accepting that cosmic randomness determines our very breath.
Why did this happen to me? Why now? They are not questions we want an answer to, but as humans, we crave finding meaning in our lives. We do it because the alternative is accepting that cosmic randomness determines our very breath.
Read more