Explore JAMA’s A Piece of My Mind essays, real-life stories from physicians about the joys and challenges of practicing medicine in the modern era.
This essay reflects on the author’s experience of 2 worlds—writing and medicine.
In this narrative medicine essay, an internist-psychiatrist offers a novel way to address physician burnout by celebrating 4.5-star ratings rather than 5-point ratings as the standard of meeting patient care goals to promote achieving a balanced life.
In this narrative medicine essay, a primary care physician relates the complexity of routine patient visits that have been distrupted by the 2-year COVID-19 pandemic and shares how she has adapted her medical advice to addressing the stress and sorrow patients experience.
This essay discusses the sharing of patient photographs by clinicians on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this narrative medicine essay, an emergency medicine resident describes the inadequate coping mechanisms she and her colleagues use to deal with unending tragedies of patients treated in the emergency department and longs for dedicated time for physicians to process what they see, hear, and feel every day.
In this narrative medicine essay, a movement disorders neurologist, whose examinations rely on gauging facial expressions, contemplates the complexities of day-to-day lost connectivity while wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and savors now the renewed intimacies experienced face to face.
This essay describes how a neurologist’s experience with a cerebrospinal fluid leak led to newfound gratitude for their own treating physicians and nurses and insight into patients’ experiences.
This essay discusses medical aid in dying (MAID) and encourages physicians to inquire about medical societies’ stances on MAID and to consider a position of engaged neutrality.
This essay describes a physician’s experience becoming a patient for the first time and the valuable knowledge this experience imparted.
This essay describes the author’s chronic depression and despair during residency, which led to a suicide attempt.
This essay describes the author’s father, a surgeon, passing the baton on to him as a second-generation pysician.
In this narrative medicine essay, a neurohospitalist recalls a patient from a palliative care elective during her residency who vividly expressed the joyful moments of her life, a counterbalance that helps her accept her death.
In this narrative medicine essay, a palliative care physician struggles with her role as physician and as daughter during her elderly parents’ final days.
In this narrative medicine essay, an internal medicine resident who grew close to a patient with COVID-19 and to his teenaged daughters pinned her hopes on his recovery and followed his progress and setbacks even after she rotated to a new assignment.
This essay describes the difficulty of shared decision-making about treatment placed on physicians, patients, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This essay describes the author’s experience building a canoe during medical school and residency.
In this narrative medicine essay, a medical student explores the facets of her grief over her mother’s death as a daughter, a caretaker, and a medical student.
This essay describes the author’s experience with craniotomy and recovery from the procedure.
This essay describes the author’s experiences facing racism from patients and recommendations for ways to create more inclusive environments for physicians who experience racism.
This essay describes examples of harassment and bias experienced by medical trainees from their patients.
Customize your JAMA Network experience by selecting one or more topics from the list below.