Humanities resources to support healthcare professionals and patients
An emotional story and message from an unexpected source. A grumpy old man living in a falling-down house that is under threat from developers meets a do-gooder boy scout. This however is the opening sequence outlining his earlier life. 5 minutes conveys so much, yet it is easy to realise only later that it is Read More …
On the long flats north of the river An elder in a leather jacket Is hitchhiking to his daughter’s funeral From: Poems the size of photographs by Les Murray. Commentary This short poem by Les Murray gives us an image of an Aboriginal elder in the Australian outback. Aboriginal peoples suffer from poverty, very poor Read More …
She clearly didn’t know that this overdose was different. This time, he was dead. In the emergency department (ED), we’ve become all too familiar with the twenty-something code-blue patient – usually male, often found at the train station around 7:30 am. The medical management of a cardiac arrest was familiar, but seeing it happen outside Read More …
Wednesday June 14 2023 in Aberdeen. Welcome back to in-person meetings! Though the meeting will be hybrid, if you can’t come in person you can still join in. #ScotMedHumanities23 Full details of the symposium here
More notes after the operation on my right eye (26 March 2010), whose cataract was more rigid and opaque. This time the onrush of light is less specific and more generalised. It’s not so much that things appear better lit, but, rather that I’m acutely aware of how everything is surrounded by light. The element Read More …
So beautiful … Oh! The lovebirds are eating … But a heart attack is gruesome, bringing intimations of mortality to many, and death itself to others. In our softer age, anatomy as art seems less shocking than Polly Morgan’s taxidermy. Her arresting art has been highly successful though. Perhaps the unexpected has unusual power to Read More …
I began collecting the used packets on the second anniversary of my transplant, as a reminder of how fragile our grasp on life is. Without my medication I cannot survive, and so it acts as a ‘protective shield’ … Extracts from Brian Keeley’s website (2016). Commentary The Artist Brian Keeley required a heart transplant following Read More …
When a patient comes in with a fatal head bleed, that first conversation with a neurosurgeon may forever color how the family remembers the death, from a peaceful letting go (“Maybe it was his time”) to an open sore of regret (“Those doctors didn’t listen! They didn’t even try to save him!”) When there’s no place for Read More …
Nise: The Heart of Madness (Portuguese- Nise: O Coração da Loucura) Commentary Nise da Silveira was born in Brazil in 1905. She was a lot of things – the only female student of her graduating class in medical school, a student of Carl Jung and a pioneer of occupational therapy in Psychiatry. In this film, Nise: Read More …
You have a big heart, said Dr Broadbent, turning a compliment into a fatal condition. Poem by Olive M Ritch, 2018. Commentary An unfortunate pun. A nice example of the confusions inherent in communicating with patients. Orcadian poet Olive M. Ritch has written a number of poems on medical themes, and is a course tutor Read More …