conversations about medicine and life
We publish a range of perspectives on health and wellbeing, especially reflective or creative work which fleshes out the biomedical version of illness and disability.
Sue Wootton
Medicine went to the doctor. “What brings you here today?” asked the doctor.
“I’m limping,” said Medicine. “My right side is strong, but my left side is weak. I’m tired but I can’t sleep. I never feel refreshed. I’m exhausted. I have everything I need but I’m not content. I don’t know what I want. I can’t see the wood for the trees.”
“When was the last time you sat under a tree?” asked the doctor.
Emma Storr
Can poetry be therapeutic? William Sieghart, editor of the recently published The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried and True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul, certainly believes in the power of a carefully selected poem to comfort and to make sense of feelings that threaten to overwhelm us at times of great stress. He argues that a poem can help us understand our emotional state and alleviate our fear that we are the only person who is suffering in this particular way. The inspiration for the book arose from a friend’s suggestion that after his talk at a poetry festival, Sieghart should offer short consultations to audience members and prescribe a suitable poem for their individual state of mind. It proved a great success and Sieghart subsequently toured the UK offering poetry pharmacies in libraries and festivals. As he states in the introduction to the book:
In all of this, I learned how much most people’s heartaches have in common.”
Karen Zelas
Minnie Dean is the only woman to have been hung in New Zealand (Invercargill, 1895). Her story wasted no time entering our country’s mythology and to this day she remains a cautionary figure used by some parents to foster compliant behaviour in their children. Earlier this year, Mākaro Press published my verse biography: The Trials of Minnie Dean.
I first became acquainted with her circumstances a hundred years after her death, when asked to review Lynley Hood’s 1994 biography Minnie Dean: her life & crimes for the International Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect. At that time, I was a Child and Family Psychiatrist, accepted as a specialist in this area. From Hood’s research I was satisfied that, at least in part, Minnie Dean became a scapegoat of Victorian morality. She cared for unwanted young children, raising some to adulthood. It was inevitable that there would be deaths, since the infant mortality rate at the time was extremely high (up to 90% in institutional care). I drew a parallel with contemporary fostercare and the undervaluing of the role of fosterparents.
Sue Wootton
Wildbase Hospital is an animal hospital, based at Massey University in Palmerston North. It specialises in the treatment of native New Zealand animals and birds. It’s also a training hospital for veterinarians, nurses and wildlife technicians. A terrific kids’ book by Janet Hunt has recently been published about the work done there: How to Mend a Kea and other fabulous fix-it tales from Wildbase Hospital.
It’s a beautifully designed book, chock full of interesting information and appealing illustrations, and written in a clear, engaging style. That’s ‘Kea: Patient #78129’ on the cover, wrapped in a towel ready for his daily weigh-in. As Hunt explains, the patients are identified by their species and a number:
The Wildbase team tries very hard not to tame patients. It’s not good for the birds to rely on people because sooner or later they will be free, living healthy independent lives in the wild. They are not humans and that’s why they (mostly) don’t have names.”
Sue Wootton
Doctor wellbeing has been in the news lately, with the recent ratification by the World Medical Association of a new clause to the Declaration of Geneva (the modern Hippocratic Oath). The change was proposed and promoted by Queentown’s Dr Sam Hazledine, following concern at the very high level of burnout experienced by doctors. The old clause read, “The health of my patient will be my first consideration.” The new clause reads:
I will attend to my own health, wellbeing and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard.”
[Read more…] about “Life in day-tight compartments”: Osler on doctor wellbeing
Lorraine Ritchie
Perhaps having been born the fifth child in a family of six children where their mother “ran the house along military lines” helped Andrew Cameron develop a determined self-sufficiency, strength of spirit, and a good measure of robust survival skills. All of this has held him in good stead throughout his adventurous life and intrepid nursing career. This career is the subject of Cameron’s newly published autobiography, A Nurse on the Edge of the Desert – From Birdsville to Kandahar: the art of extreme nursing. Cameron leads us to the many places and events which populate his nursing journey, culminating in his being awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, a prestigious honour which very few nurses ever receive.
