Arctic paws
A translation of Epigram V.9 by Martial (c. AD38 – c. 103)
Under the weather, I was:
Languishing on level six.
You were quick to come by, Prof Symmachus.
Poke your head round the curtain to check I don't mind
Before a hundred disciples pour in behind.
(A hundred drizzles of alcohol gel)
Didn't feel all that bright as the first took my wrist;
By the last I was septic as well.
Epigram V.9
Martial
Languebam: sed tu comitatus protinus ad me
uenisti centum, Symmache, discipulis.
Centum me tetigere manus aquilone gelatae:
non habui febrem, Symmache, nunc habeo.
Competing interestsNone declared.
Provenance an...
Source: Medical Humanities - May 30, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Hodson, N. Tags: Poetry and Prose Source Type: research
Employing imaginative rationality: using metaphor when discussing death
The prevalence of metaphors in medicine is widely acknowledged. In a qualitative study exploring expectations of longevity, we observed repeated recourse to the imaginative rationality provided by metaphors to express perspectives on longevity and death. Bafflement, acceptance, uncertainty and distress were conveyed through metaphors, providing valuable insight into the internal healthcare frameworks of participants. Skilful use of imaginative rationality in the healthcare setting may illuminate the elusive and often eschewed topic of death in a way that fosters clarity and new understandings, and pave the way towards a be...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Llewellyn, R., Jaye, C., Egan, R., Cunningham, W., Young, J., Radue, P. Tags: Brief report Source Type: research
Grace Under Pressure: a drama-based approach to tackling mistreatment of medical students
A positive and respectful learning environment is fundamental to the development of professional identities in healthcare. Yet medical students report poor behaviour from healthcare professionals that contradict professionalism teaching. An interdisciplinary group designed and implemented a drama-based workshop series, based on applied theatre techniques, to help students develop positive professional qualities and interpersonal skills to deal with challenges in the healthcare setting. We piloted the workshops at the University of Sydney in 2015. Attendees completed evaluation questionnaires and participated in a focus gro...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Scott, K. M., Berlec, S., Nash, L., Hooker, C., Dwyer, P., Macneill, P., River, J., Ivory, K. Tags: Brief report Source Type: research
Murder by the book: using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource
Crime is a popular genre of fiction, widely read but sometimes seen as ‘throwaway’. Disregarding this type of fiction because it is seen as low quality does not take into account its value to readers. Reading has been established as a means of improving mental health and well-being—often known as bibliotherapy. This often focuses on fiction considered to have literary merit rather than genre fiction like crime. However, in framing therapeutic reading in this way, the impact of texts considered to have low cultural value such as crime has been concealed. Examining readers’ responses as a starting poi...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Brewster, L. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Opposed to the being of Henrietta: bioslavery, pop culture and the third life of HeLa cells
Operating at the intersection of thanatopolitics and African-American cultural studies, this essay argues that the commercial sale of HeLa-themed art and other bioproducts perpetuates the bioslavery of HeLa cells, a circumstance created by legal and medical discourses tracing back to US racial slavery. Racial slavery normalised economic, social and legal inequities that the nation continues to struggle with and, the article posits, laid foundation for the dynamics that currently exist between Henrietta Lacks' genealogical family, the HeLa cell line, and the medical-pharmaceutical establishment. The author turns to fashion ...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Moore, M. R. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Capturing the worlds of multiple sclerosis: Hannah Laycock's photography
This essay explores UK photographer Hannah Laycock's Awakenings and, to a lesser extent, Perceiving Identity that were created in 2015, following her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2013. It draws on scholarship by people with chronic illness while situating these two MS projects in the context of Laycock's earlier art and portrait photography dealing with fragility, image and desire, and power relations between subject and observer. The analysis illustrates how her evocative photography captures the lived or subjective experience of an invisible and often misunderstood condition by initially focusing on the tens...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Bolaki, S. Tags: Editor's choice Original article Source Type: research
Who cares? The lost legacy of Archie Cochrane
Over the last 20 years, the evidence-based medicine (EBM) movement has sought to develop standardised approaches to patient treatment by drawing on research results from randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The Cochrane Collaboration and its eponym, Archie Cochrane, have become symbols of this development, and Cochrane's book Effectiveness and Efficiency from 1972 is often referred to as the first sketch of what was to become EBM. In this article, we claim that this construction of EBM's historical roots is based on a selective reading of Cochrane's text. Through a close reading of this text, we show that the principa...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Askheim, C., Sandset, T., Engebretsen, E. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
'There was no great ceremony: patient narratives and the diagnostic encounter in the context of Parkinson's
This paper draws on stories of diagnosis that emerged from a broader narrative study exploring the lived experience of Parkinson's (n.37). Despite the life-changing nature of their diagnosis, participants' narratives highlighted considerable shortcomings in the way in which their diagnostic encounter was handled, echoing the findings of previous research in which it has been noted that ‘the human significance’ of diagnosis was passed over. Building on the literature, this paper provides empirical material that reveals the sensitivities involved at the moment of diagnosis. By examining both the structure and con...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Peek, J. Tags: Open access Original article Source Type: research
A fuller picture: evaluating an art therapy programme in a multidisciplinary mental health service
Art therapy has a long history in mental healthcare, but requires an enhanced evidence base in order to better identify its precise role in contemporary services. This paper describes an evaluation of an art therapy programme in an acute adult psychiatry admission unit in Ireland. A mixed method research design was used. Quantitative data were collected through a survey of 35 staff members and 11 service users. Qualitative data included free text comments collected in the survey and individual feedback from service users. Both methods aimed to assess the role of art therapy as part of a multidisciplinary mental health serv...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Brady, C., Moss, H., Kelly, B. D. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Suicide voices: testimonies of trauma in the French workplace
Workplace suicide has become an urgent social concern internationally with rising numbers of employees choosing to kill themselves in the face of extreme pressures at work. Yet, research on this phenomenon is hampered by fragmentary statistical data and the sheer contentiousness of this issue. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a research project on workplace suicides in France, where there has been a ‘suicide epidemic’ across a wide range of companies. I draw on an analysis of suicide letters linked to 23 suicide cases across three French companies during the period 2005–2015. My methodologi...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Waters, S. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
When doctors are patients: a narrative study of help-seeking behaviour among addicted physicians
In recent decades studies based on questionnaires and interviews have concluded that when doctors become ill they face significant barriers to seeking help. Several reasons have been proposed, primarily the notion that doctors' work environment predisposes them to an inappropriate help-seeking behaviour. In this article, the idea of the ill physician as a paradox in a medical drama is examined. Through a text-interpretive and comparative approach to historical illness narratives written by doctors suffering from one specific diagnosis, namely opioid addiction, the complex set of considerations guiding their behaviour as pa...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Wistrand, J. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Whence 'zoster? The convoluted classical origins of a sometimes illogical term
The term ‘zoster’ is nowadays associated with ‘herpes zoster’, the condition resulting from reactivation of the latent varicella-zoster virus which causes shingles. But in antiquity the meaning of ‘zoster’, a Latin word originating from the Greek for a belt or girdle, was variously associated in men with a form of body armour which could enclose just one half of the body; in women with a garment worn around the waist and sometimes called a ‘zona’; and with a place, Zoster, linked mythologically then with the goddess Leto and her zona. Around 48 AD, the Roman physician Scribon...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Schott, G. D. Tags: Original article Source Type: research
Limbo
they parade through the hostile check-in,
the entrance
wrapped in grey,
shrouded in silence
a mournful dance in limbo
daily
sad, expressionless faces,
there is nowhere else to go but here,
the destination one,
the departure unclear
delayed
daily
they wake in her unquiet presence,
wait
her restless peace,
agitated
they promised she would go
lingering
daily
her weakened lungs
shattered and battered
a cloak
of smothered ash
weak and heavy and tired, thick
her every breath
saturated and hungry
a struggle, her lungs
held open only by the machine
now turned
off
awaiting take-off, exit
daily
each breath a hope of final rest
...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Ando, V. Tags: Poetry and prose Source Type: research
Reliving the day
There's a general hum on the wards: Beeps, bells and buzzers Mixed with carts rolling, drawers opening and Voices helping. An occasional delirious, "Nurse!" Rings out, followed by A soothing reassurance. It's a measured calm, a sensation of Welcome. Without warning a chasm opens wide around us, The air from our lungs sucked into its depths. Panicked shouts are followed by Overhead pleas; The mood turns tense with the electricity of Fear. Runners pass by, ruffling onlookers' hair With their breeze, like the Breath that is missing. A frenzied pace settles in Along with a desperate hush. The chaos turns into a Resolute cycle ...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Darcey, J. Tags: Poetry and prose Source Type: research
Odyssey of life
Born to the world
you unfurl your sails,
snapping and billowing
they harness the power,
leading you through
the odyssey of life.
Wallowing in calm waters
you listen to the rhythm of life.
But, never far away
the whish of a breeze
to fill your sails,
and proudly you cut
a swathe through gentle waters.
To'ing and fro'ing
you face challenges,
adapting with ease.
But troubled waters lie ahead,
as winds of change bluster
and storm clouds gather.
The utmost challenge
facing you, your sails
battered and torn
you falter, struggling
for a safe haven
to rest your wounded soul.
The storm over, you emerge
shaken, but not broken.
A...
Source: Medical Humanities - February 21, 2017 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Fleischer, S. Tags: Poetry and prose Source Type: research
