fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

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fostering the humanistic practice of medicine publishing personal accounts of illness and healing encouraging health care advocacy

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Step by Step

Halfway through my third-year rotations, I was sitting in a hidden enclave in the children’s hospital, trying to eat my lunch and get a bit of rest. By that point in the year, the gray circles under my eyes were darker, my feet hurt more easily, my time was consumed by work and study. Is this all worth it? I often asked myself.
That day, something hit me: I realized that all around me in the hospital were pain and hurt and suffering. Literally, physically, on every side of me as I walked the halls–here was a kid with a fracture, there was a baby with bronchiolitis; there were anxious parents, sick children, tired nurses. Broken people, a broken system. It felt like I was being hard-pressed on every side.
And yet, during those few minutes of peace I experienced as I sat with my back against the wall, I realized that I just had to take it day by day. Step by step. One foot after the other. Sometimes that’s all you can really do. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat.
Anna Delamerced
Providence, Rhode Island

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