Gently Read Literature July 2011
PC or not, these messages, both tacit and avowed, are subjects essential to discussions about healthcare and the crisis we currently face. What role does patient responsibility play in treatment? Should it play a role at all? What must medical providers forfeit while treating the belligerent and willfully helpless? What do these experiences do to their sense of duty? These are questions that need to be asked, if not answered, before we can reach constructive solutions in a system growing ever more
complex, both on financial and ethical levels. Perhaps most importantly, the poems elevating these questions comes from a vantage point many of us find entertaining in prime time, but don‘t otherwise critically consider, unless we are caught in the system itself. Ultimately, The Dirty Poet presents us with notes from the trenches. We would be wise to listen and learn.
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