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Graduation gown: shiny, matching cap / She looks up / With aspirations
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Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Cleveland Clinic Children's
Alex is a resident in child neurology at the Cleveland Clinic. She received her Bachelor’s in neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh and her medical degree at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is a reader of science fiction, a drinker of bourbon, a neuroanatomy nerd and a dog mom, in no particular order.
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.
#Top12of2020: in-House 2020 Year in Review
Happy New Year from all of us at in-House! We are proud to announce the in-House Top 12 of 2020, our 12 most-read articles of 2020. 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.
The Unspoken
I have finally had enough. As a health care provider, COVID-19 brought about a lot of uncertainty and many changes in preparation for what might unfold. But over the last few months, the social unrest surrounding police brutality and the disproportionate occurrence of these cases towards people of color has added to my physical exhaustion by conflating it with both emotional and mental fatigue. After 32 years of tolerating systemic racism, it is finally my turn to say something.
Physician, Activist — Does One Preclude the Other?
When do you leap into the unknown and venture into the uncomfortable? Is it after methodical deliberation or is it much more abrupt, emboldened by a critical decision? Perhaps it is a deep drive within you, one that propels you forward in a way in which you cannot look back.
Has the Stethoscope Had Its Day?
Earlier in February of this year, before COVID-19’s onslaught in London, UK, I was covering service on a respiratory ward when a young medical student made herself known to the physician’s office. “Could I borrow your stethoscope? I’m here to practice my respiratory examinations.”
Ruth
I first met Ruth in the emergency department when I was a third-year medical student on my psychiatry rotation. She was an “elderly female with psychosis — medical workup negative.” My resident had received a page with a request for her admission and sent me to the ED to speak with her first.
Resident Physician Contributing Writer
Children's Hospital at Dartmouth
Sevde is a second-year pediatrics resident at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth. She is interested in pursuing general pediatrics and continuing to explore the narrative medicine field. In her free time, she likes to read Russian literature, update her blog, search for good coffee, plant flowers on her balcony, and watch The Great British Bake Off.
