The Voices in Humanism (Voices) initiative is a collaboration between The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine’s Gold Humanism Honor Society Resident Chapter and the OSU Medical Heritage Center. The mission is to collect, preserve, and share the arts created during this challenging time. Students, residents, faculty, staff, alumni, and all members of the healthcare family submit all forms of visual arts, writing, and music to the collection. To view the growing collection, visit the Voices webpage.
Before the End, submitted by Charlene Fix who is part of The Ohio State University’s Hospital Poets group and a member of the Medicine and the Arts and Humanities in Medicine board, was written after her 100-year-old mother took a fall and was in the hospital.
“I walked in on a tender scene in her room in the geriatric ward at Grant Hospital seeing a young Pakistani doctor training to work with the elderly feeding breakfast to her, concerned that she wasn’t eating. Later, I watched a nurse gently clean blood from her hair,” Charlene shared.
“It was the beginning of the end of my mom’s long life. One has to do something with all that emotion. Poetry to me is love, necessity, obsession, and immersion. In a way, it is my religion. It helps me understand, articulate, uplift, witness, celebrate, query, and play,” Charlene stated.
Lifting the Weight of the World was submitted by OSU medical student Jodie Makara who was inspired by a friend’s first power lift.
“I drew it for her as a reminder of how strong she is nad how much she means to me,” Jodie said.
“Art and poetry for me have been lifsaving, not only in medical school, but especially in undergrad when I was just starting to discover who I was and who I could be. My hope is to continue sharing my stories in a way that anyone can relate to, but especially other queer folk. I want them to see others like them pursuing medicine (pushing back on the binary ever so slightly 🙂) and feel like they’re not alone in whatever path they choose to pursue,” Jodie continued.
Work From Home Seminar: Peer 2 Peer Support with Honorary Dr. Sophie was submitted by Jessica Rutsky, MD, a pediatric gastroenterology fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, to bring a smile as we reminder of our days of continuous study.
Lakeside Daisies was submitted by Holly Cronau, MD, associate professor of clinical family medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her photography bring us into the wonders of the natural world and this piece features one of Ohio’s most spectacular wildflowers. The lakeside daisiy is a perennial that grows where few others can—on nearly barren limestone bedrock in full sunlight.
Butterfly was submitted by Jody Glasser Sobol with a beautiful quote from Maya Angelou.
The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) is partnering in this initiative by highlighting pieces of work in the Weekly Family Medicine Update, as well as on the Joy Among Chaos webpage. If you would like to contribute to this collection and share your own piece of work that reflects thoughts during this time of dual pandemics as we struggle to understand the impact on our patients, their families, our communities, our profession, and ourselves, we encourage you to do so. Submissions may be emailed to LCStoneMD@columbus.rr.com.
Financial support for this program is provided by the AAFP Foundation Philanthropic Consortium (FMPC) which is funded by members like you! Help programs like this continue to support family medicine by giving to the FMPC. Select “Chapter Grants” when making your gift online. Thank you!