Author's posts
It’s time we stop saying “black cloud” and “black weekend”
Racism is a pandemic that has long existed before COVID-19. As a fourth-year medical student, I have been rotating in the hospitals and recently finished my sub-internship. Whether on the wards or in outpatient clinics, a recurring phrase would hover f…
Medical students in solidarity: Black Lives Matter
Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. We speak their names out when they no longer can. As a medical student, I have learned and recognized the many prejudices underlying our healthcare system against persons of color. Racism runs rampant in hos…
The power of poetry during a pandemic
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am fr…
Turning to prayer during the pandemic
Photos of health care providers in prayerful stances are being shared on the web. From nurses on helipads at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, to ER teams at Jackson South Medical Center, people have been photographed on their knees, arms outstretc…
In the midst of a global health crisis, USMLE Step 1 needs to be made pass/fail now
Every aspect of life has been affected by COVID-19, including medical education. Since March 17, medical schools across the nation have suspended clinical rotations, per guidelines from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The target en…
Medical students are living life one day at a time during the pandemic
My friends’ weddings have been postponed, even my own cousin’s. Step 1 exam dates have been moved, much to the shock of many students I know. My brother’s third-year rotations have also been delayed, and the curriculum has unexpectedly changed from the…
Here’s why you should get a chaplain for your patient
It was my first week of internal medicine rotation. A newly-minted third-year, I was rotating on the wards back in the spring, when I met a 90-something-year-old gentleman. He had come in for confusion after a fall. There were no relatives or friends i…
