Ravenna Raven

March 31, 2022

Hospitals

Association of American Medical Colleges, 2021

Ravenna Raven

March 31, 2022

Hospitals

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) leads and serves the academic medicine community to improve the health of people everywhere. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, Listener Poets from The Good Listening Project spoke with 252 of their constituents from all areas of medical education. This book contains the resulting poems and stories, written by our Listener Poets.

Topics on the minds of participants ranged widely in a time marked by a global pandemic, widespread demonstrations around racial equity, and the persistent dedication of healthcare workers. Listener Poets began each conversation by asking, “What should the poem be about?” Then, they listened.

Order here:

Volume 1

August - November 2020

Volume 2

December 2020 -

March 2021

Volume 3

March - May 2021

Poems in this Collection

To My Daughters, Who Will Need to Know

This physician had recently started a new job when the pandemic hit.

Decision Fatigue

“I feel like I have decision fatigue,” she told me. It was normal for her to make many choices at work, but COVID had dramatically increased the number of medical decisions she had to make at home.

Yosef the Builder

This physician discussed being the only one in his practice network with expertise in patients with a specific type of chronic pain.

So Much More to Medicine

“Our constituents are uniquely affected by the pandemic,” they said. This poemee was an educational psychologist who spoke about how much they missed working in person with med students, healthcare staff, and medical educators.

Re-set

"I grew from the experience – though I think it aged me 10 years!" This is how a resident described a turning point with a specific patient when he recognized how burned out he was.

A Kind Reminder

“There’s a constant feeling inside that I should be doing more,” she said. “But I also want to be kind to myself and recognize all that I’ve given.”

Caregiver, Care For Yourself

He brought the tools of mindfulness and self-care to medical students, many of whom had been studying all this past year, 10 hours a day, day after day, in isolation.

Forbearance

He had recently lost his father to COVID-19 and was reflecting on forgiveness. For the majority of his life with his father, they did not have a positive relationship. However, in the last three years of life, his father lost his memory and his personality changed into someone who was loving and kind.

home

“When you get to hear the hidden sides of people’s stories, you never look at people the same,” she said, with a noticeable tenderness in her voice. This woman was a therapist who supported physicians and residents. “Sometimes as I lay in bed at night I inhabit the stories people share with me.”

The Calling

“When everything else stops, we keep going,” she began. This woman had always wanted to be a physician, and as a medical school student, was about to become the seventh generation of physicians on her mother’s side of the family.

The Good Listening Project - Frankie Abralind - PPE poem.jpg

PPE

She was tired after working twelve straight days on her current rotation. It was her third year of medical school, and she was already feeling burnt out. “I have five more years like this,” she said. “My sister tells me, ‘Keep pushing, you can get through it,’ but I don’t know if I can.”

Our Collections

AAMC Volume 1 - The Good Listening Project.jpg

Association of American Medical Colleges, 2021

Georgetown University Medical Center, 2020

Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, 2020

Inova Schar Cancer Institute, 2019

Gold Humanism Summit 2019 Collection Cover.jpg

The Gold Humanism Summit, 2019

Mayo Clinic Transform Conference Collection, 2019.jpg

Mayo Clinic Transform Conference, 2019

Erie Shores Healthcare, 2019

International Integrative Nursing Symposium, 2019

American Nurses Association 2019 Collection Cover.jpg

American Nurses Association Annual Conference, 2019

Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, 2018

August 9, 2020

Hospitals

Georgetown University Medical Center, 2020

Ravenna Raven

August 9, 2020

Hospitals

Two Listener Poets brought their typewriters to Georgetown University Medical Center for one week, right before the COVID-19 pandemic began to shut things down in earnest, with a goal of helping fight burnout. Their signs offered Free Custom Poetry. Curious people stopped to take them up on it. Each time, the Listener Poet asked, “What should the poem be about?” Then, they listened.

Inspired by those conversations, the poems in this book tell the stories of some of the humans who spend time there.

Listener Poets Ravenna Raven and Jenny Hegland

Washington, D.C.

Poems in this Collection

I Already Miss This

"I struggled to make friends until my junior year of high school," she said. "Then I finally opened up and became friends with so many people." She was now a freshman at Georgetown University and was learning how to bond with her new peers.

True Friendship

She immediately knew that she didn’t want her poem to be about cancer. She wanted it to be about friendship and asked if she could share a recent story.

Cat Comfort

“I miss my four cats back home,” she said. “Want to see pictures of them?!” She was a graduate student in biotechnology. She explained that the program consumed her life. She saw other students studying abroad, posting pictures of travel and fun, but there was no room for that in her life.

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Our Collections

Association of American Medical Colleges, 2021

Georgetown University Medical Center, 2020

Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, 2020

Inova Schar Cancer Institute, 2019

The Gold Humanism Summit, 2019

Mayo Clinic Transform Conference, 2019

Erie Shores Healthcare, 2019

International Integrative Nursing Symposium, 2019

American Nurses Association Annual Conference, 2019

Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, 2018

Ravenna Raven

August 8, 2020

Hospitals

Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, 2020

Ravenna Raven

August 8, 2020

Hospitals

Our Listener Poets spent six weeks visiting several units of Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital. When a curious person saw their signs and stopped to take them up on the Free Custom Poetry they offered, each Listener Poet asked, “What should the poem be about?” Then, they listened.

Inspired by those conversations, the poems in this book tell the stories of some of the humans who work there.

Listener Poets Jenny Hegland, Ravenna Raven, and Frankie Abralind

Washington, D.C.

Poems in this Collection

The Art of Caring

She began her career as a hospice volunteer and then worked as a critical care provider in the Emergency Department for many years. She told me she always wanted her patients to feel empowered while in her care. “This feeling has to do with quality of life,” she said.

Why I Take My Time

We talked when she had a quick break during her shift at the Infusion Center. She told me how important it was for her to make the most of the moments she had to make connections with people.

Traveling Nurse

She told me that she had lived in Florida for 50 years but now that she had an empty nest, she’d become a traveling nurse so she could live in different places. “I was only supposed to be in D.C. for three months,” she said, “but now I’ve been here for nine because I just love it so much.”