Tonight will be my first night shift in the medical ICU (MICU) since COVID began ravaging New York City. I was on the hospital floors as an internal medicine resident during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, my clinic block was canceled, and I was placed on sick call, though I didn’t get called into any additional shifts. I felt uneasy in the days leading …
A physician’s first night at the MICU in New York City
Growing up, any opportunity to eat out was truly a luxury. We just didn’t have the money for it.
Occasionally on birthdays or a special trip, we would be treated with a big fish sandwich from Burger King, or my personal favorite, a $20 party tray of shrimp fried rice from the local Hong Kong Express takeout spot.
As trivial as these fast food places were, they were special because of how …
A physician uses where he comes from for constant motivation
Although I’m still relatively early in my journey through medicine, it is still notable when a more mundane task becomes a moment I cannot forget. After seeing dozens of colonoscopies for a couple of weeks, I remember one particular patient, who after completing his procedure very joyfully told me while eating crackers and drinking juice that this was the moment he had been looking forward to the most.
Over the past …
Health care professionals who fast and celebrate the month of Ramadan
As a medical student having completed my undergraduate major in the humanities, I often receive the question, “Why did you choose to do that?” The underlying thought behind asking why I would choose a major in the humanities while holding the intention to later attend medical school is that medicine is especially distinct from the humanities (and specifically African-American studies in my case). The sciences are just a whole other …
This is why the humanities are important in medicine
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