Author's posts
From masks to medicine: How empathy shapes true medical excellence
Thirty years ago, I entered Loyola Medical School, and my initiation into the culture of medicine began. As best as I could at the time, I prepared myself for the challenges ahead. I aimed to cultivate a strong will, a powerful intellect, and what I ho…
An elder mentor’s message to new medical students
For 21 years, I have had the privilege and honor of coaching and mentoring medical students. Most of this mentoring takes place in my outpatient internal medicine-pediatrics practice, where each student spends two to three days with me every week for a…
An experience of shame in training
Early one morning in 1996, after a sleepless night on call, I stood with my team in the VA hospital, outside room 102. I was a 28-year-old intern in the general medicine service. We were making rounds on twelve patients that my intern partner, myself, …
