General Interest: Essential Reflective Writing Resource: Pulse--Voices from the Heart of Medicine
By: Paul Gross, MD, as submitted to DR-ED Listserv
Forwarded with permission by: Todd Lash, Publications Committee Chair

Pulse--voices from the heart of medicine, an online publication launched by Department of Family Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2008, now has over 11,000 subscribers.

Every Friday afternoon, Pulse sends its readers a first-person story or poem, along with a visual or haiku, about health care. Written by a student or physician, a patient or caregiver, a nurse or other health professional, this offering--concise and lovingly edited--presents a uniquely personal perspective on the practice of medicine.

As one physician reader told us: "In this time...it is absolutely essential that voices of caring, emotionally connected clinicians and others are heard clearly, to remind us of why we do the work we do."

Or, as Don Berwick put it, "I don't just read Pulse, I adore it."

Pulse is ideally suited for medical students encountering a hidden curriculum at odds with the values we hope to teach them. Educators use its pieces to teach professionalism, humanism and self care.  A recent Pulse story, Cat and Mouse, describes a medical student's early days of counseling after anxiety and depression threatened to derail her studies.

Pulse is free, it contains no paid advertising, and it's easy to subscribe. We also welcome submissions from students and faculty.

I'd encourage you to check it out--and see if it doesn't provide you with a valuable educational tool, in addition to one more reason to welcome Friday afternoons.

With warm regards,

Paul Gross, MD, Editor-in-chief

Publications Committee Mission: “To bring high quality reporting of current research, trends, techniques and information regarding SP methodology and other relevant industry articles to the attention of the membership through the web-based ASPE eNews blog.”