Levity
At the turn of every corner / I will be found out / You will see / The fraud in me
Featured
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center
Vanessa Velez is a resident physician in psychiatry at Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center in Brick, NJ.
#Top10of2021: in-House 2021 Year in Review
Happy New Year from all of us at in-House! We are proud to announce the in-House Top 10 of 2021, our 10 most-read and shared articles of 2021. Thank you for your readership over the past year and for your ongoing support of our publication, the premier online peer-reviewed publication for residents and fellows. #1 Do Individuals from Low Income Families Belong in Medicine? (Yes!) By Amy Zhang, MD, MBA at the University of Washington School of Medicine Do Individuals …
Along the Road: A Perspective on Medical Training in a Pandemic
It feels odd to have family members in the hospital regularly again. My patient’s wife approaches cautiously; for a second I pretend not to see her. She looks like she wants to talk and I’m afraid she wants good news I can’t give, promises I can’t make, and time I don’t feel like I have. She wants time to tell me her loved one’s stories.
Where The Tulips Bloom
Her grip on my hand is tight. Almost as tight as the elastic on the oxygen mask stretched across her face, digging furrows into her thin, sallow skin.
When Assimilation Becomes Oppression: Rethinking the “Model Minority” Narrative
I am a first-generation Chinese American. And, amidst the tapestry of threads that form my identity (mother, wife, daughter, woman, doctor), it is the piece I have often prized the least.
Stargazer
Graduation gown: shiny, matching cap / She looks up / With aspirations
Sparkle Shoes
“Every one of these patients should terrify you,” the fellow said. I thought he was just being dramatic.
Living with Congenital Heart Disease Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Patient-Physician Reflection
Thinking back to January 2020, I recalled the whispers throughout the hospital of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States, mere minutes from my home institution. Aside from my perspective as a pediatrician, I was also forced to confront my own anxieties regarding exposure to this virus as an adult living with repaired congenital heart disease.
Our Acts of Freedom: A Physician-Advocate’s Perspective
On the morning of January 6, I awoke ecstatic to the news of Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s predicted wins in the Georgia run-off elections. To be frank, I have become hesitant to hope while inured by the near-daily attacks on civil rights by the Trump administration via executive orders and federal policies. Over the past four years, I witnessed with pride — but also fear — as community activists tirelessly organized to combat racist policies.
Internalizing Medicine: Starting Intern Year in the Time of COVID
In my home city of Washington, D.C., citizens have taken the changes brought on by COVID-19 very seriously; social distancing, masking and frequent hand hygiene are now routine. These days, I am startled when I see the bottom half of someone’s face out in public. Our homes have become our sanctuaries. In the hospital, however, much of our work continues unabated. Orders are written, notes are signed, lab work is drawn, imaging is performed. Housestaff are on the front lines with nurses, respiratory therapists and patient care technicians taking care of the sickest patients day-in, day-out.
Do Individuals from Low-Income Families Belong in Medicine? (Yes!)
Recently, several attending physicians sparked controversy on Twitter by implying that low-income medical students or trainees should not pursue careers in medicine. While these tweets have since been deleted, the systemic injustices that they echo still ring in the highest levels of modern medical education. As a medical trainee from an impoverished household, I have spent almost my entire post-secondary education and medical training as part of an invisible demographic.
It Is Right to Leave: Rank List Decisions as a Minoritized Medical Trainee
My fingers tense. Frozen not of my own accord. I want to do this, but I can’t. I need to do this, yet the anxiety grips at my mind and throat, stalling what should be an easy decision. As a Black, gay medical student in my fourth year, what I’m about to do has so many repercussions and permutations. So much so that I feel stuck, unable to be decisive when decisiveness is necessary.
Fellow Physician Contributing Author
University of California, San Francisco
Chase T.M. Anderson is a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his B.S. and M.S. from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.D. from The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. And he completed his residency training in adult psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital.