Dr. Almond's Stories Of A West Virginia Doctor

William Carlos Williams' Doctor Stories tell the realities of being a physician. The physicians in the Doctor Stories tell the careful balance that many doctors face throughout their careers. From addiction to lust, to more, doctors are humans with human emotions. William Carlos Williams proves that doctors can still perform their jobs despite interesting conditions. Through the expression of characters and slight sadness expressed in his short stories, coupled with his expressive poetry, William Carlos Williams conveys the feelings a doctor has that makes them no different than other people.

“How did you become a many-faces man, Mik-api” (Welch 95)? White Man’s Dog’s weighing curiosity on Mik-api’s life prompted an inquiry that would give the audience a better understanding of Mik-api and the experiences of a medicine man. In response to the question, Mik-api proceeded to recount the tale of his adventure in becoming a medicine man. James Welch illustrates the customs of Native Americans and their history in the United States in

Until the Flexner Report of 1910, requirements for admission to medical schools were rudimentary at best. Even the two prestigious schools in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College, required only “one year of college work, in which, however, conditions have been very freely allowed.” and “a high school education or its equivalent,” respectively. Students at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1840s and 1850s were taught that science is based on experience and making a “judgment” as to the correct answer to a question or a problem. Civil War Surgeons’ medical education was severely limited by the concept that disease was caused by “bad air” (Dorwart, Bonnie Brice).

Selzer’s The Exact Location of the Soul captures the essence of being a physician by using first person point of view, a series of personal anecdotes, and such striking imagery.

The author constantly used short stories and visual description to get her thought across, entertain, and inform the reader. She told not only stories about medical findings but also about how the medical field works in general. One of the stories that stood out the most was the one about the socratic lectures that senior doctors would have with doctors-in-training to help them get a better understanding of treating real patients. She compared it to how medical school is now, filled with lectures and powerpoints of past patients, whereas back fifty years ago they had a more hands on experience. She wrote it in a way that was funny, comparing how “back in the day” you could actually look at a patient’s illness and now you have to see a slideshow of pictures and use that information to diagnose them, along with medical

Prominently featured in the mission statements of virtually of every medical school and medical institution in the world is the call for empathetic doctors. These institutions wish to train medical professionals that possess qualities of sympathy and compassion, and hospitals wish to employ health professionals that showcase similar qualities. The reality, however, is starkly different, as physicians, jaded by what they have seen in the medical world, lose the qualities that drove them to medicine in the first place. In Frank Huyler’s “The Blood of Strangers,” a collection of short stories from his time as a physician in the emergency room, Huyler uses the literary techniques of irony and imagery to depict the reality of the world of a medical professional. While Huyler provides several examples of both techniques in his accounts, moments from “A Difference of Opinion” and “The Secret” in particular stand out. Huyler uses irony and imagery in these two pieces to describe how medical professionals have lost their sense of compassion and empathy due to being jaded and desensitized by the awful incidents they have witnessed during their careers.

At the start of the civil war in 1861 there were less than 100 doctors (Fifer, “Health and Medicine During the Civil War”) and by the end there were around 11,000 Union doctors and 4,000 Confederate. Less than five percent of all Union doctors have ever performed a surgery before the start of the war, and the Civil War caretakers had just let go of old remedies such as, bloodletting, purging and blistering. The study of medicine was not a well known topic. (Dixon, “Civil War Medicine”) Doctors had to learn their jobs by doing, and treatment constantly an effort of trial and error to learn the ways of helping their patients. Care providers had never experienced these “bone shattering” injuries before the start of the Civil War. (Trammell, “Life is better than limb”)

Obviously, at this era in time social class meant everything, this could even determine what kind of treatment and doctor you would have. At the top were the physicians - only the very wealthy had physicians because the physicians fee was 10 shillings. One step lower than the physicians were the surgeons they were similar to barbers. A step lower than the surgeons was the barbers who were only certified to pull teeth or let blood (Alchin). The

Prior to these readings, I viewed doctors to be cold-hearted and unsympathetic. William Carlos William’s poem “ The Red Wheelbarrow,” changed my perspective of doctors. William’s discusses the beauty in nature and how his patient is in pain and unable to witness the simple things like the rain and the red wheelbarrow. Although this poem may be simple, it speaks profoundly about Dr. Williams. By sitting with his dying patient, Dr. Williams expresses sympathy and comfort to his patient. Dr. William holds many qualities that a good doctor possesses, such as caring, concerned, and being faithful

William Carlos Williams’ passion and dedication of medicine can be seen through his literary contributions of short stories and poems. The Doctor Stories use interior monologue in a stream-of-consciousness as a tool to reflect each narrator’s experience and gives insight into the character and his appraisal of each of the situations encountered. It is through this stream-of-consciousness that we come to realize the observational nature of this doctor’s actions and thoughts.

There were doctors in Colonial America. When a doctor visits a patient to check upon the sick person's health, their pay will be in anything but money such as chopped woods, vegetables, et cetera for the poor people. The poor people did not have money as stated in A Visit to a Colonial Times Doctor’s Office. They usually rely on their farming to feed their families and things such as money were scarce. Those who are of the contrary to the low income and the rural settings have better access to health and opportunities as written in Colonial Medicine (5). They can pay their doctor on the spot and can even request their choice of doctors. In modern America, a new change to the health care business is arriving. With the currently new healthcare, everyone shall be able to hopefully

Practitioners with a lack of formal education did medical care in the 17th century. Many women and laypeople in that time had lots of expertise in herbal medicines and folk antidotes to cure colonists. The first curer people would turn to if they were sick would be a neighbor or a family member. However, there was a new type of physician in the 18th century. This was usually a young man from a wealthy family who went to an elite university who didn 't see himself as a doctor, but more as a scientist. The new physicians learned anatomy through dissection, assisted researchers, and helped with medical experiments. They also observed surgical procedures, and sat through lectures about new advances in the department of medical science. Alongside the scientists, there were also surgeons. The military was where many surgeons

The movie “The Doctor” takes an intimate look at the life of a surgeon who is immensely detached from his patients and often acts callously towards his patients and even his family. The arrogance and heartlessness that are seen in the beginning of the movie slowly become subdued when Jack McKee finds out that he has a malignant tumor. The diagnosis of the life-threatening tumor forces Jack to reevaluate his life and in turn allows Jack to see life from the perspective of a patient. The differences in McKee’s character are abundantly evident but one of the best examples of how much he truly changes are how starkly different the opening scene in the surgery suite is as compared to the final scene in the surgery suite. When the movie opens

If a physician was called, death was inevitable (42). My grandmother wholeheartedly disagrees with Abel’s ideas. She trusted her doctor literally with her life. Emily Abel emphasizes that doctors proved to remain unreliable and costly. She illustrates the difficulties of summoning a physician; “transportation difficulties not only delayed doctors’ arrivals but also prevented them from providing continuing care” (41). My grandmother lived in a different kind of situation. The town she resided in consisted of almost all relatives; where as in Abel’s stories, the doctor most likely would be required to travel long distances to provide care. Transportation served as a significant challenge that prevented care from being rendered in a timely fashion, especially if major trauma or an acute sudden onset condition was involved. My grandmother did not experience this obstacle. My grandmother explained, “[T]he doctor's office had registered nurses and a few rooms available for more care, if needed, for twenty four hours a day.” In other words, help was almost always available. The local doctor’s instrumental value benefitted the surrounding community. This local resource came in handy with her multiple children.

How they combined their own unique interests with their desire to serve. I knew that although interesting, becoming a doctor is a long and hard road. One that requires serious personal investigation and hardened commitment.