More Verbal Remedies: Creative Writing by Medical Students 2016

More Verbal Remedies Creative Writing by Medical Students 1 More Verbal Remedies Creative Writing by Medical Students Selected and edited by Helen Lynch and Olive M. Ritch 2 3 More Verbal Remedies Creative Writing by Medical Students Selected and edited by Helen Lynch and Olive M. Ritch 2 3 Foreword Why Medical Humanities and Creative Writing? The arts and humanities help us to make sense of our experiences, understand the world, who we are and perhaps who we want to be. As medical students and future clinicians the third year students who study creative writing, as their medical humanities option, are taking time to connect with this long tradition. Fundamentally, the aim of the medical humanities courses is to give the students the opportunity to change their focus and consider alternative perspectives. By engaging with experiences, stories, emotions and characters, in a very different way from the approaches of much of their medical studies, we hope that the students learn about themselves and expand their horizons. Each patient is an individual and each doctor-patient relationship unique because we are people living in layers of context from family dynamics through to global economics. Many of the medical humanities courses seek to generate a greater understanding of this wider context. Creative writing allows students to imagine and explore context. In order to write about a character you must step into their shoes, surely an exercise in empathy. Refining and crafting writing require reflection. To show empathy and to be able to develop personally and professionally through reflective practice are now familiar requests for the skills of today’s and tomorrow’s doctors. Creative writing reconnects the students with the most natural of human phenomena, creativity, and in doing so equips them with insights and skills to help sustain them through their career. I hope that you are inspired when you read the students’ work. Dr Leeanne Bodkin Coordinator Medical Humanities University of Aberdeen 4 5 Contents Spring Break in Kerala ............................................................................................................. Salina Lalwani Hospital ............................................................................................................................................ Sophie Pitts Maggot ...........................................................................................................................................Nicholas Png Penguins ........................................................................................................................................ Awaiss Ellahi Kuala Lumpur............................................................................................................................... Awaiss Ellahi Two Vignettes ...................................................................................................................................Ailsa Bruce Solitaire ......................................................................................................................................Gareth Hopkins Wolves ............................................................................................................................... Ciaran McLaughlin Candles ............................................................................................................................... Ciaran McLaughlin Ewen’s Got A Cat ............................................................................................................................ Katie Noble Samantha .......................................................................................................................................... Katie Noble Ross the Boss ............................................................................................................................Gareth Hopkins Familiar Voices ................................................................................................................................ Fong Zheng Pure Rotten ....................................................................................................................................... Joe Cooney Lost Voices ....................................................................................................................................... Fong Zheng Off Your ‘Pedestool’ ....................................................................................................................Jack Chalmers Daylight Rubbery .....................................................................................................Ming Hui Elizabeth Fong Dunes ...................................................................................................................................Niharika Nalagatla Hello Paul ...............................................................................................................................Jasmine Kennedy Ice Cream and Suitcases ........................................................................................ Chloe Jayne Sui-Bee Yeap Common Room .................................................................................................................Niharika Nalagatla Fairy Tale .......................................................................................................................................... Sophie Pitts Piano-ist ........................................................................................................................................Nicholas Png Unfamiliar .................................................................................................................Ming Hui Elizabeth Fong Drip Drip Drip ...............................................................................................................................Matt Arnold Prickles ................................................................................................................................. Alexandra Mather Fergus ................................................................................................................................... Alexandra Mather Out .....................................................................................................................................................Jack Abbott An Old Man and his Shoes ............................................................................................. David Romanowski Swinging in the Wind ...................................................................................................... David Romanowski Belfast Blues ................................................................................................................................. Fiona Preston Creaky Step .................................................................................................................................Tarak Chouari Memories ....................................................................................................................Christopher Leiberman Palliative .....................................................................................................................Christopher Leiberman One to Remember ......................................................................................................Christopher Leiberman Lost ..................................................................................................................................... Callum Williamson Waiting ............................................................................................................................... Callum Williamson Finest Treat.................................................................................................................................Sashrika Shetty Scene ............................................................................................................................................. James Brechin Work Call ........................................................................................................................Karim El-Shakankery Power ..............................................................................................................................................Jacob Flapan Fractals ......................................................................................................................................Saarah Ebrahim Geography Lesson ................................................................................................................... Salina Lalwani A Glimpse of Inertia ................................................................................................................. Salina Lalwani 4 5 Spring Break in Kerala Salina Lalwani Cane swings are not the most comfortable pieces of furniture to have your meal in. I sat cross legged on the thin worn cushion trying to avoid actually swinging and spilling an assortment of fluids, also known as curries, onto my new lime green salwar kameez from the rimmed steel plate on my lap. I passively swallowed the volcanic rice ball, barely tasting the coconut or the red chillis as I stared at the palm trees that ambushed the lonely dirt road to the house from the stone porch, cocooned by my cane cage. It was almost too green out there, and not the organised green you would expect from nature but an unruly explosion of Mikado pick-up stick proportions. The three crows that never, ever left were doing their daily rounds of the acres of farm land,

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