Katherine Chretien, MD, Grant Wilson, MD, and Michelle York, MD, join host Toni Gallo to discuss building meaningful relationships with patients, the small but impactful ways they show their patients they care, and the important role that learners play in connecting with patients and contributing to their care. 

A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org.

For those who do excellent work, but quietly, and sometimes under the radar, the simple phrase, confidently stated—“You are in good hands”—can make all the difference. You got this.

Shailaja J. Hayden reflects on the importance of inspiring confidence in fellow members of the care team, which then inspires confidence in patients.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the April 2024 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Rather than sheltering me from the rigors of doctoring, the museum has deepened my relationship to medicine by restoring its inherent mystery. It reminds me that the reality of our patients will always exceed our understanding of them.

Kain Kim reflects on how teaching the humanities can help normalize uncertainty in medical training.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the March 2024 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Through all the time I had known him, and through all the rounds and presentations, many voices were heard: my own, my senior resident, my attending, the ICU team, the consult teams, the family. But the softest voice, often overcome by dysphonia, came from the bed at the center of the room, and it needed to be amplified the most.

Richard T. Tran reflects on a patient’s request for a vanilla Ensure and learning that sometimes the greatest comforts can come from the simplest of interventions.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the February 2024 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Pilar Ortega, MD, MGM, Débora Silva, MD, MEd, and Bright Zhou, MD, MS, join host Toni Gallo to discuss strategies to address language-related health disparities and enhance language-appropriate training and assessment in medical education. They explore one specific language concordant education framework, Culturally Reflective Medicine, which recognizes and supports the lived experiences and expertise of multi-lingual learners and clinicians from minoritized communities. 

A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org.

I started this letter with a question, but I pray not for an answer. I cannot accept one. Instead, please give me the strength to replace the wet mask soaked in my tears. Give me the power to continue the Sisyphean task of treating your ill and moving on to the next patient, especially on days like today.

Norman R. Greenberg writes a letter to God asking why patients must suffer and how those who treat them can continue on amidst their grief.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the February 2024 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

As medical students, we know of death. We study anatomy through cadaver lab, we memorize mortality rates of diseases, and we hear stories from our professors about their late patients. But most of us do not know death yet.

Carlin E. Zaprowski reflects on the difficulty of losing patients and encourages supervisors to discuss this difficulty with trainees.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the January 2024 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

I wonder what would change if students were taught that personal leadership was not about hiding their brokenness, but recognizing their wholeness. If we were not asked to sacrifice ourselves to serve our patients. What would be possible then? How would medicine be different?

Leighton Schreyer reflects on being a queer medical student and how things might change for the better in the future.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the January 2024 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

What if I had not been at an academic institution, with a learner and a supervising teacher? Whose steadying hand would have been on my leg? I needed that hand.

Katherine C. Chretien reflects on undergoing a procedure that taught her that together, teachers and learners bring value to patient care encounters.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the December 2023 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

When we really love it, we lend a little bit of ourselves, a little bit of our souls to the work that we do—to the art of nursing. If it is not us today, then it may be us tomorrow, and I hope that someone will be there to tell me what my view is like outside my window, too.

Doctor of nursing practice student Courtney Polimeni reflects on how the practice of nursing, including helping patients learn to cope with the tenuous nature of the human condition, is an art.

This essay placed first in the 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest and was published in the December 2023 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

Psychiatry was going to require all of me... To see the human body as more than machine. Yes, the heart is a pump, and our neurons entangle one another in electrical circuits. Medicine, however, transcends the physiological being.

Third-year medical student Riley Plett reflects on a transformative encounter with an Indigenous patient and learning that medicine requires much more than scientific aptitude.

This essay placed second in the 2023 Hope Babette Tang Humanism in Healthcare Essay Contest and was published in the November 2023 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.