A nurse examines a clinical encounter through her poetry and appreciates the individual nature of care.
Read moreOn Work-Worn Hands and Gestures of Love, a short essay by poet and educator, Joan Baranow
A writer and poet honors the memory of her mother by finding the parallels between her own work and the story of another mother and daughter.
Read moreScripting Death: When Words Fail – In Conversation with Liana Meffert’s “Death is Usually an Easy Diagnosis” by Paula Holmes-Rodman
“A medically assisted death, such as I recount in my essay “Mercies, Or, the Mostly True Tale of a Narratively Assisted Death” (Intima Spring 2023), is the antithesis of a traumatic ending in an ER. It is highly anticipated, fully orchestrated and well rehearsed – on everyone’s part but my own.”
Read moreThe Third Ear: Listening for Intergenerational Trauma
A psychiatrist uses her skills of close listening within the clinical encounter to uncover the enduring effects of intergenerational trauma.
Read moreOn Knowing
A nurse ponders the role of hope in the clinical encounter and whether the holy can be found within the realm of medicine.
Read moreOn Being Confined
A retired hematologist explores the importance of clinical communication and health literacy by close reading two pieces published in this journal.
Read moreOn Sinatra, Bach, and Daughters: The Power of True Joy in the Face of Illness
A medical student reflects on the loss of their father to a devastating neurodegenerative disease as well as the power that music can hold during the illness experience.
Read moreThe Importance of Providing Compassionate Palliative and End-of-Life Care
A writer reflects on her own mother’s experience with death and dying and argues for the greater recognition of palliative care in the clinical encounter.
Read moreLeave Work at Work
Which story is heard, and by whom? Which story do people want to hear, and why? A COVID nurse provides explanations as well as recommendations about storytelling.
Read moreThe Embodied Connection in Patient-Provider Interaction
A former PICU nurse examines the power of both embodiment and gaze in the clinical encounter.
Read moreStories Make Us Human by Krista Puttler
“Ms. Paul, I can’t give you any more pain medication, it isn’t time.”
Edith’s eyes were closed. She was in the single patient room again, the one that had an anteroom with an extra sink that connected to her room by a sliding glass door. The residents always made sure both sets of sliding doors were closed before talking about her.
Read moreScripting Death: When Words Fail – In Conversation with Liana Meffert’s “Death is Usually an Easy Diagnosis” by Paula Holmes-Rodman
In reading Liana Meffert’s “Death is Usually an Easy Diagnosis,” I was intrigued by her reflections on the learning and limitation of choreographed roles and scripted dialogue in pronouncing death and informing bereaved families.
Read moreReligious Moments in Medical Practice by internist John Pierce
A retired physician reflects on his glimpses into religion and spirituality while confronting his patients’ illness and suffering—as well as his own.
Read moreObjectivity versus Art: A Reflection on Technology in Medicine
A physician-novelist ponders the troubling implications of the increasing technologization of health care and its encroachment on the art of medicine.
Read moreAbsences in Cortney Davis' "It Was the Second Patient of the Day"
A writer and father ponders the power of absence in the clinical encounter, as well as the power of presence.
Read moreLet Me Speak My Free Mind into You: Seeking Genuine Connection in Medical Practice
A medical student examines two poems published in this journal in order to advocate for genuine connection in medical practice between patients and physicians.
Read moreAfter Testimony, Tribute
A testimony and tribute to one writer’s mother who passed away from COVID-19.
Read moreHungry for the Everyday: On Jennifer Abernathy’s "Hunger"
A nurse ponders the role of food in the ICU setting—as well as the hunger that it can stir and the memories that it can evoke.
Read moreOn Disability, Tools, and Dignity
What is the interplay between dignity and disability? A writer living with Ehlers-Danlos explains.
Read moreWhen Magic Meets Medicine: A Reflection on the Power of Play
Through poetry, a writer and community-based coach appreciates the magic at the borderland of the known and unknown.
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