Humanities resources to support healthcare professionals and patients
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
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 …
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 …
Hollie McNish. So no more will I sit on these cold toilet lids No matter how embarrassed I feel as she sips Because in this country of billboards, covered in tits I think we should try to get used to this Commentary A rattling, lilting, lyrical rant at the absurdity of society’s contradictory attitudes to Read More …
I had overestimated the size of the square in the middle of town by quite a lot. But it was still big, more than big enough for a hospital. Two operating theatres, one of them in a truck! an emergency room and maybe eighty beds? We’d have to take care of the cars of Read More …
“Know him,” the Neurosurgeon said, as we Huddled expectantly, our white coats gleaming. Armed with newly honed skills in taking a history We enquired about headache and vomiting. “No, really know him,” the Consultant insisted, although we did not understand. “Listen without assuming, discover who he is and never suppose what his passions are or Read More …
I this day began to feel unaccountable alarm of unexpected evil: a little heat in the members of my body sacred to Cupid, very like a symptom of that distemper with which Venus, when cross, takes it into her head to plague her votaries. But then I have no risks. I have been with no Read More …
One thing you’re paid in cash for As a junior doctor Is filling in forms for the crematorium Finally, time To study the file, to catalogue Dying of 1a, 1b, exacerbated by c And wish you knew this all before You summarise, we worked hard But death worked harder Sometimes, the more you like them Read More …