Letter from the Editors

voices

about us

Voices is the student-run literary magazine of the Duke University School of Medicine. We publish varied forms of creative expression from the medical community, and welcome submissions from patients, students, healthcare providers, employees, families, and friends. Our goal is to publish a range of unique voices in and adjacent to the healthcare system. We hope that as you read through the pieces in this issue, you will be inspired to submit something as well. Send all submissions to voices@duke.edu.

letter from the editors

Like taut violin strings, the tension in our divided society awaits resolution, but whether we end in sweet harmony or in contentious cacophony depends on how we play our pieces. In this issue, we present the trailblazers of our community who are discontented with the status quo. Three years into the pandemic, we have seen its world-shattering effects: the unveiling of long-existing inequalities in our communities, political divisions over the ethics of vaccination, the realization of our limited infrastructure, and skyrocketing rates of burnout in providers. As society embraces a new “normal,” however, we cannot forget the lessons learned. In fact, our contributors place even brighter spotlights on the faults of our healthcare system and on the flawed breed of providers manufactured by our training, with the hope that change is on the horizon.

As you examine these selected works, we encourage you to speculate on not only what behavior characterizes the best providers, but also what culture might empower them to thrive. How can we cultivate our inner psychiatrists and cope with loss in the OR? When will the era of Big Medicine and Big Pharma end? And how can we change the conversation in healthcare about culture? The answers are far from simple, yet in them lie the blueprints to a new structure of providing healthcare, one that focuses less on simply providing and more on caring.

We hope you enjoy this issue. We thank the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & the History of Medicine for their immense support and for partnering with us to host the ongoing contest “RENEWAL.” Please submit prose, poetry or art to voices@duke.edu and visit sites.duke.edu/voices/renewal for more information.

Your co-Editors-in-Chief, Lindsey Chew, Devon DiPalma, Emily Hatheway Marshall, and Linda Li

table of contents

Letter from the Editors 2

Red Jess Harris, PA-C 4

Until You Know Anonymous 6

Across the Corpus Callosum Anonymous 10

The Medical Snare Lauren Bartels 12

We should change the conversation in healthcare about 'culture' Joe Doty, FH and Emily Hatheway Marshall, FH 14

associate editors

Austin Ayer MS4 Sophia Chang MS1 Meredith Cox MS1 Seth Flynn MS4 S. Tammy Hsu, MD PGY4 Judah Kreinbrook MS1 Hannah Maclellan MS1 Aaron Mebrahtu MS1 Federica Mosti GS3 Kira Panzer MS4 David Ryu MS3 Siraj Sodhi MS1 Dominic Tanzillo MS1 Daphne Zhu MS1

design editors

Lucy Zheng MS2 Mariam Ardehali MS3