By Hannah Nava From car payments to mortgages, there are many financial burdens that individuals face on a daily basis. The most expensive of these burdens is healthcare: Whether visiting the doctors for respiratory issues to extended hospital stays after surgery, it costs to get...
By Laura Sander, MD MPH “The blue side is what I display to people and the dark side is just that. The thoughts that race in my head are in yellow and white. Red is anger. The dark side of my mouth is because I say...
By Stephen Miranda By the time Lydia came to Pathways Hospice, she had suffered from several hospitalizations. I was her “companionship volunteer.” During my training I learned about the power of a volunteer visit, but I had my doubts. At nineteen, I hardly had the life...
By Shane Ryan We all know that receiving a cancer diagnosis is traumatic. When patients and their families are faced with such a potentially life-threatening situation, the first thought is often that they’ll be willing to do anything that’s needed to fight it. However, the journey...
By Rita Kuwahara Every nurse knew his name. Every provider was intimately familiar with his medical problems and why he spent 124 days in the past year in the hospital. The day I met Mr. X was the day before his discharge. He was excited to go...
By Patricia Czapp, MD “Doc, I need an MRI for my back.” I recognized the voice immediately and turned to greet one of my favorite patients, Mr. P. There he was, smiling, leaning on his walker. Mr. P visits me several times a day in my primary care...
By Charlene Gaw My first day of medical school was a day I had been anticipating for almost a decade. It started in high school when I began volunteering at a local hospital. At the time, I had an idealized vision of a career in medicine....
By Vaidehi Mujumdar I walked into the ICU room to find Mary* lying in the bed curled up, a small spot in a pool of white sheets haphazardly covering her. A ward of the state at an HIV/AIDS hospice in Harlem, she was suffering from end-stage...
By S. Matt Read It was just before dawn, and Annie was shaking. I said her name once without a response, then again. Nothing. Then a long moan. I jumped up and turned the light on. Annie was having a seizure. I ran to the next room and...
By Sophia Bernazzani Public opinion polls suggest most Americans trust their medical team. People consistently list doctors, nurses and pharmacists as some of the most trusted professions. When we go to the doctor or are admitted to the hospital, few of us worry about the doctor,...