Editor's Comments on 'Two Left Feet'

 , September 23, 2016

In the long journey of medical training, when do we “cross-over” – from layperson to doctor, from observer to participant? Sometimes it seems that even years into our work, at every turn we are woefully new again, and if we don’t give into tears over this fact, the only thing we can do is laugh. Jorge Roman’s “Two left feet” does just this, satirizing a typical medical student history and physical in the emergency department. We can feel the trepidation, the hesitation in the language, the eager-beaverness to help and to learn. It’s possible that the clinical experience of the medical student has never been more aptly summed up, with both a laugh and a hard-truth punch to the gut: “Sorry to poke and prod but I can’t resist, /  Let me try that again, / On second thought let me stop pretending, / I’ll go now and grab the attending.”

Benji Perin

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