Language: English

Film can help us look disability in the eye.

This editorial (2 pages plus 4 links to videos) argues that US Americans are uncomfortable with disabilities and that filmmaking can make it easier for them to do so. The author tells his story of being misunderstood and having awkward interactions many times because of his condition (medical name not given) that he calls "whale eyes:" misalignment of his eyes so people can't tell where he's looking. He started by making a film his senior year in college to show his family how the world looks to him and how he works around his condition to read, write, cook, and navigate the world. From there he started making more films with disabled people - one with face blindness, another going blind, a stutterer - so they could tell their stories in similar ways. Videos linked to the article are 8-12 minutes long and all focus on "experiencing" the disability: See what the face-blind person experiences (recognizable faces are shown upside down and sure enough, you can't identify them). Listen to the stutterer actively filtering out their fluency issues with an imaginary machine called a "Listenometer." Useful as insight into non-medically focused stories of disabilities, or as examples for a digital storytelling activity.

Unmasked: Illustrating Covid-19 in Okoboji

Emily Mendenhall wrote a book, "Unmasked: Covid, community, and the case of Okoboji" based on 87 interviews with people in her hometown of Lake Okoboji, Iowa in 2020. This graphic narrative, illustrated by another native of Lake Okoboji, condenses that scientific/cultural report into full-color panels of comic strip interspersed with description and analysis. Much more compelling for most undergrads than a chapter of the book would be, it focuses on "cultural squabbles and social complexities of the first pandemic year in ...a tourist town in northwest Iowa." Could also illustrate the work of a medical anthropologist within her own community rather than in an exotic location.

The internet still thinks I’m pregnant.

This is both a podcast and a print version. Author downloads an app as soon as she finds out she's pregnant, enters personal information (due date, last menstrual period), and enjoys the pictures and info that come along every week. Then she miscarries and deletes the app, but personal information has been sold to various other companies so she receives marketing as though she's still pregnant and even a box of formula samples just before her due date. She finds a way to laugh at this and take early miscarriage in stride, but muses on the irony of her pregnancy being such public property when she had told almost no one before she lost it. Useful for reflecting on the various audiences and media for our health narratives: the story we tell close friends and family interpersonally, but also the "story" that is revealed by apps and purchases. Although the author ends on a humorous note, the essay does also include details of pregnancy disclosure and health care for miscarriage.

Reflective MedEd

The "About" section of this blog explains its purpose as follows: "Reflective MedEd is dedicated to reflective practice in medical education and care of the person. We publish contributions that offer insight and illumination into the experience of educating the next generation of physicians. We welcome the thoughts of educators, patients, and all who foster awareness of the human dimension of doctoring and develop advocates for the just and equitable treatment of all patients." Especially welcome are submissions that address "social justice and a concern for marginalized and vulnerable populations, the role of faith in medical practice, and ethical standards of decision making." Reflective MedEd is supported by the Ralph P. Leischner, Jr., MD, Department of Medical Education at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Blog posts include both personal narratives and reflective essays from a variety of experiences and perspectives. For example: "How COVID Impacted my First Patient and Patient Death Experience," "What I have Learned About Trust from Black Women," and "The Wolf: How skeptical should we be of our patients?"

When the Uber Driver Asks, Do You Have Any Kids?

Prompted by the Uber driver's small talk, this disabled author reflects on how an alternative self, who is not disabled, might answer--or would not have to answer, because her life would be different. Telling the story of the alternative self and life is a means of revealing some of the ways her Stargardt disease (a rare genetic eye condition) has affected the author. The story speaks to non-apparent disabilities, cultural assumptions (about women, about able-bodied-ness), stigma, and disability.

Haiku Rules of the Road

The online publication Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine provides this brief set of instructions for writing haiku. The Pulse site also includes many examples of haiku. These instructions (and examples from the site) could be used in a variety of settings. For example, the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative teaches a session on writing haiku as part of it's narrative scribe training, a workshop dedicated to developing the skills of listening closely to a story, and then offering it back to the teller. Just as medical record keeping often distills a detailed patient narrative into the forms required for diagnosis and health record keeping, so too haiku can be used to distill a narrative into a gist. The contrast between what details might make it into an electronic health record and what details a haiku might focus upon can prompt discussion of what is left out of many clinical interactions. Writing haiku can also be a useful exercise in college courses. It is an accessible form of poetry to teach as one example and can prompt discussion of what constitutes a narrative.

Art + Medicine | Speaking of Race

This one hour PBS broadcast features voices of many physicians of color at the University of Minnesota. Each physician talks about instances of race impacting their practice as well as the care that patients of color receive. It begins discussion of why race is important to talk about in health care and ends on each provider's favorite aspect of teaching and medicine.

The Nocturnists

Podcast series created by physician Emily Silverman that focuses on humanizing medical practice through healthcare workers' storytelling. Some topics: interview with author of a book on forced sterilization, "Black Voices in Healthcare" and "Post-Roe America". Episodes run 35-55 minutes.

The Weight of the Soul

"The Weight of the Soul" is a poem written by physician and poet Jack Coulehan. It refers to an experiment run in 1901 to measure the weight of the human soul by weighing a body before and after death to conclude that the departed soul weighed 21 grams. Coulehan concludes that it is humbling to hold less than an ounce of soul, and he hopes that it is enough in the end. This poem prompts reflection on the meaning of life and death, what can be known from scientific data and what cannot.

Heart Sounds

In this 5 minute read, a first year medical student discusses treating a patient whose family had to overcome indifference in the ER in order for him to receive treatment. Additionally, the medical student illustrates managing the unknown when assisting a patient with an advanced and nuanced condition. The student decides that the best treatment they can provide is listening to the family's complaints, fears, and happy moments in order to encourage them to keep believing in this patient's future. The story touches on cardiology as a specialty and would benefit pre-medical undergraduates as well as professional students recently starting their health profession. It highlights the importance, and difficulty, of active listening.