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Can Med Educ J
Can Med Educ J
CMEJ
Canadian Medical Education Journal
1923-1202
Canadian Medical Education Journal

CMEJ-15-144
10.36834/cmej.79696
Images
Emotional processing
Traitement des émotionsZieneldien Tarek 1
Kim Janice 2
1 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Maryland, USA;
2 Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan, USA
Correspondence to: Tarek Zieneldien; email: Zieneldient1@gmail.com
20 8 2024
30 8 2024
8 2024
15 4 144144
© 2024 Zieneldien, Kim; licensee Synergies Partners.
2024
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Journal Systems article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is cited.
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pmc

Artist statement

While in medical school, many students have personally experienced distress due to patient loss. Interviews with medical students have elucidated that while the deaths of older patients are distressing, coping with the death of young children or infants evoked even greater emotional distress.1 Among medical students, some of the common coping strategies in response to patient loss include communicating their emotions, crying, and turning to and practicing religion. Besides patient loss, many students also find interacting with the families of dying patients emotionally difficult. These are some of the most profound emotional challenges that medical students face as they transition to becoming resident and attending physicians.

For the past few years, there has been a slow, but emerging inclusion of coping strategies and end-of-life care in medical school curricula.1 “Emotional processing” represents the difficult emotional transition that medical students go through as they experience patient loss. Since this could lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout, we created this digital art piece to advocate for the continued advancement and inclusion of palliative care curricula in medical schools, as well as the incorporation of well-being strategies that promote self-care and help construct strong social support systems for students.

Media

“Emotional processing” is a piece of digital art that was created by the generative artificial intelligence software Midjourney. The subject demonstrated sitting in the image is fictional and does not depict a real individual.
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1 Pessagno R, Foote CE Aponte R: Dealing with death: medical students' experiences with patient loss. Omega (Westport). 2013, 68 :207-228. 10.2190/OM.68.3.b 24834665
