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COVID-19
WHERE TO FROM HERE

At Left, Felt Hearts: "Every participant in
The Healer's Art Course receives a hand-
made "feelie heart" as a symbolic object to
bring comfort in times of stress or grief, and
to remind them to hold their own hearts and
the hearts of others tenderly."

Opposite Page: "Last class of Healer's Art
done through Zoom."

Hospital. She told us the story of one of her patients and the
meaning she found in her care. We have all felt a little adrift with-
out the anchor of patient care and community in our lives. Her
talk, work, and ideal of service revived us. After our small group
discussion, we each renewed our commitment to service by con-
tributing to our written version of the Hippocratic Oath. Al-
though we were not able to finish the course in person, we were
able to reconnect with one another and consider our shared values
as healers during a time when others need us the most.
Time at home brings new challenges, but it also provides us with
peers and become more compassionate physicians. The heart and some much-needed time for self-reflection. Thinking back on The
soul of The Healer’s Art are small group sessions, in which stu- Healer’s Art, we are confident that it has important implications
dents explore the unique experiences that brought them to medi- for our upcoming generation of future physicians. As medical stu-
cine in a supportive peer group. We found emotional resilience dents, The Healer’s Art gave us an opportunity to return to the
discussing the hard parts of medicine and identifying traits that heart and soul of medicine and cultivate the healer inside of us
make us healers. It is difficult to convey the positive impact of before facing the challenges of clinical practice. Our course par-
being given the space to regroup and reconnect with the human ticipants emphatically concurred that they were able to come to
side of medicine for a few hours each week. terms with their feelings of grief or loss, while nurturing an ap-
Then in March, the world changed. Our bedrooms and living preciation for the suffering of others. We are thankful for these
rooms became our new lecture halls. Before COVID-19, we spent lessons learned and remain hopeful that our experience has pre-
our days consulting with faculty in hallways, volunteering at free pared us to journey into the trenches of clinical rotations and be-
clinics, and studying with friends in the library. Suddenly, our only yond. We are grateful for opportunities such as this to learn how
ties to medicine became our laptop screens. Those of us in to combat burnout and be better equipped to process the many
Healer’s Art this spring lost the chance to attend our final class emotions we will inevitably face. As future physicians, we vow to
and say good-bye to the small family we had formed. Or so we always seek awe and beauty in medicine and to utilize our innate
thought. Despite concern that the intimacy of Healer’s Art’s small characteristics and strengths to make us better healers.
group format would be lost to an online format, we decided to
hold one last class over Zoom. It was a chance to reconnect in a Glennette Castillo, Yolanda Crous, Victoria Helton, Johnnie McElroy,
time of social isolation, to reaffirm our commitment to one an- Chandler Morrow, Amy Nguyen, Muslima Razaqyar, Madison Rigsby,
other and our profession, and to remind ourselves that we must Matthew Smith and Vy Vu are Medical Students at the Long School of
always look for the meaning in medicine. Medicine
Our last session focused on service as a way of life, and there
was no better time for this discussion than during a pandemic. References:
Our speaker was a physician in the COVID-19 ward at University http://www.rishiprograms.org/healers-art/

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