Northern Clinical School Humanities in Medicine Prize
This year’s Northern Clinical School Humanities in Medicine Prize was awarded to Tom Arvanitis, MD3 student, for his written work titled You are never alone.
Tom Arvanitis, MD3 student.
Each year, medical students from the Northern Clinical School are invited to submit an original piece of creative work that captures how their engagement with this art form positively influences the way they practice/study medicine. The creative work can take the form of prose, poetry, music, craftism, drawing, painting, photography, or a short film or documentary. The creative work is accompanied by a 250-word abstract that summarises this relationship.
The concept of “you are never alone” is one constantly reinforced to us as medical students. Whether this is specifically in our academic studies, our time learning in clinical settings or in preparation for when we graduate and begin working as interns, we are consistently re-assured that our pathway through medicine is not one to be made alone. Whilst re-assured, this is a difficult premise to hold onto; as hard as we try, we do inevitably find ourselves feeling out of place at times – the fast-paced nature of medicine can be unforgiving in this regard.
This photograph, taken earlier this year whilst on holiday in Greece, re-instils this notion of medicine being a team-oriented pursuit: whether that is studying or practising medicine. The bobbing swimmer along the horizon, seemingly alone in the expansive, still ocean is greeted by a flock of seagulls. As they whisk over him, caressing the water with their wingtips, he is no longer alone. Albeit fleetingly, the snapshot in time that this photograph captures is emblematic of my own journey studying medicine and how I feel much more at ease when I know I am part of a team – when I know that I am ”not alone”. On a personal level, the sense of calmness that this photograph portrays reassures that no matter how stressful or challenging life in medicine may be at times, there will always be people around me to help along the way.