In Our Hands: On Becoming a Doctor

Edited by Linda E. Clarke and Jeff Nisker

Nonfiction: Medicine, Hospitals, Health Care
192 pages
$19.95, 6"x9" Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1-895900-86-6
ISBN-10: 1-895900-86-7
(Available in May 2007)

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The experiences of medical training are some of the most profound and the most privileged a person can have. The tradition of physician writers is partly in response to this. Story is one way of helping us to make meaning of the deep events of our lives and to reflect that meaning back into the community. Those of us who welcome these stories do so, in part anyway, because we value the inside view that such voices and stories can provide us. For those of us "with ears to hear," such stories are an entry into very human experiences.

In Our Hands is an anthology written by medical students and residents from across Canada. The collection includes fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry to provide a taste of the wonder, the challenges and the graphic realities that are the experiences of those learning to care for us all. It is an emotionally charged and rich territory indeed, this place of "laying on of hands" that is medicine at its finest.

Our hands are unique maps of who we are, who we have been. For those who are learning the privilege of being a physician, studying the hand is done with extra care. In the anatomy lab, it is a profound and poetic initiation. They will continue on to learn that the art of medicine is one of connection and engagement.



The collection is edited by Linda E. Clarke, a writer and storyteller who has worked in health care and medical education for more than 15 years, and Dr. Jeff Nisker, of the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.