Before and After: In Response to “The Face as an Organ of Identity” by California community doctor Katie Taylor

I work at a community clinic with patients who are homeless–there is the stigma of homelessness, and then there is the stigma of looking homeless.

Some patients of mine do not–or do not yet– appear unhoused. It is usually those who still have family that support them, who live in a car, who hold a job—running food for Doordash, picking for Amazon, sitting security—or who have not been homeless for so very long. But many of my patients do appear frankly homeless: a shuffling gait, a blanket draped around their shoulders, belongings pushed in a stroller, blackened teeth, leg wounds.

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The Healing Power of Empathy: Does it Exist? Can it be Acquired?

In this reflection, a retired surgeon examines the research findings of evidence-based medicine to uncover whether empathy, in addition to the principles and practice of narrative medicine, can facilitate deeper healing.

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On Subtraction: Understanding What's Lost and Gained in Clinical Encounters by Abby Wheeler

I recognized right away a kinship with Bessie Liu’s “Variations on the Negative Space Before Healing” (Fall 2023) and its use of subtraction to create new meaning; The poem by Liu, a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. very much feels like a sister to my poem, At the Doctor’s Office, I Check, Yes, I Have Experienced the Following: Sudden Weight Loss (Fall 2023).

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On Work-Worn Hands and Gestures of Love, a short essay by poet and educator, Joan Baranow

A writer and poet honors the memory of her mother by finding the parallels between her own work and the story of another mother and daughter.

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On Sinatra, Bach, and Daughters: The Power of True Joy in the Face of Illness

A medical student reflects on the loss of their father to a devastating neurodegenerative disease as well as the power that music can hold during the illness experience.

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The Importance of Providing Compassionate Palliative and End-of-Life Care

A writer reflects on her own mother’s experience with death and dying and argues for the greater recognition of palliative care in the clinical encounter.

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Stories Make Us Human by Krista Puttler

“Ms. Paul, I can’t give you any more pain medication, it isn’t time.”

Edith’s eyes were closed. She was in the single patient room again, the one that had an anteroom with an extra sink that connected to her room by a sliding glass door. The residents always made sure both sets of sliding doors were closed before talking about her.

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Therapeutic Alliance: A Key to Effective Treatment

A retired nurse practitioner close reads a Field Notes essay published in this journal and emphasizes how shared identities and backgrounds can generate a more therapeutic alliance during the clinical encounter.

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