Tag: open access

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.

Medicina narrativa

Overview of narrative medicine: characteristics of a narrative, benefits for health professionals, basis in biopsychosocial model of medical care. Useful introduction to a course in health narratives taught in Spanish; upper intermediate reading level, 4 pps

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.

Cigarettes

Juice WRLD (Jarad Higgins) was a rapper who was open about his struggles with addiction, depression and anxiety. He died of a drug overdose in 2019. Many of his music videos can be read as illness narratives. This one has an ultimately upbeat message, as the protagonist goes to AA and gets sober. It begins with a “Text this number for confidential help” message onscreen. This could work in any music/popular media class to talk about health narratives or could be part of an assignment to build a play list around a topic with annotations.