"Around the time of the coronavirus outbreak, 2019 also marked a full century since the death of Sir William Osler, who revolutionized medical training. Despite some lingering debate over whether Dr. Osler’s pneumonia-related death should be counted among the 50 million lost to the 1918 influenza pandemic, his notes suggest that he believed the flu precipitated his demise.
As a chaplain who teaches medical humanities and professional identity formation in a medical school, I’ve been thinking about how Dr. Osler might have guided medical students during COVID-19. Here, the evidence is a little clearer. Dr. Osler advocated for trainees to 'let no day pass without contact with the greatest literature in the world,' and to spend 30 minutes each night reading from a bedside library of ten classics. Included among these recommended texts were the Old and New Testaments and Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici, a physician’s spiritual testament."
Elizabeth J. Berger is an advanced practice board-certified chaplain and a narrative medicine specialist.
She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Why spiritual health is so important for medical students." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/08/why-spiritual-health-so-important-for-medical-students.html)
Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. Welcome to The Podcast by KevinMD.
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