In Their Shoes

"The physical contrast of the light fingers dancing around the dark, as well as the fault lines where the machine had met his hand, made me think harder and feel more than before about a topic we are taught in medical school—socioeconomic factors."

Fourth-year medical student, Kate E. Lee, describes how a surgery shadowing experience leaves her with lingering thoughts, not about the clinical aspect of the case, but about the vivid display of the socioeconomic determinants of health she encounters in the surgical room that day.

This essay was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the June 2021 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.