From the Past
SELECTED ENTRIES FROM THE FIRST 25 YEARS OF HUMAN FACTOR
A Medical Student's Daily Prayer
M. BREANN KELLEY 1999
God, please protect me in my daily ventures, whatever they may be, and wherever they may take me. Watch over me and guide me as I take on the task of learning my noble profession. To accomplish my goal, I will need strength of mind and body, time, patience, and persistence. Please help me remember how to keep these necessary things. Help me keep my mind and body vigor. Protect me from exhaustion, for I will learn best on a well rested brain. Let me always have the strength to attend all my classes, and the leisure to study for them. Protect me from the common pitfalls others in my profession often become trapped in. Never let me believe that I am better than another, for we are all of the same matter. Help me remember this and exhibit it in my daily interactions. Help me learn with an open mind and accept constructive advice when it is offered. Help me to remain respectful to all my fellow human beings, especially my mentors. Let me learn to be an instrument of healing.
Protect me from cynicism and undue criticism. I am my own worst critic. Help me learn to accept my own faults as I accept those around me. Also, let me never pass harsh judgment on my fellow human, for I could never tell him anything new. Each person knows their shortcomings, and is capable of assessing these without my input. Help me remember the smaller pleasures in life. As I rush from one task to the next, I often forget how to enjoy the life I was given. Please remind me every so often with a warm, gentle breeze or the scent of the rain-cleansed air. These simple things never fail to remind me of the greatness that exists. Let me never forget to be grateful. Let me continue to wake each morning with a word of thanks on my lips. The laughter of my brothers, the smell of a baby’s head, and the wonderful words of advice from my mother are the things that never fail to remind me to be grateful.
Let me learn to be an instrument of healing.
M. Breann Kelley (B.A. ’03/M.D. ’04) currently practices in North Kansas City, Missouri.
Transplant Patient:
My only memories of Douglas
DENISE L. DAVIS, M.D. 1999
I was a girl intern
taken to linger with the dying
my stand to the rear of the male pack
won me a bond with his mother
she held my hand
drew my fingers near the cancer
hidden inside her son’s marrow
she sketched a truth into my palm
our treatment was killing him
days before death she sat still and clairvoyant
her knowing looks gowned and masked
our sterile technique a protection futile as medieval incense
her mourning calls ill received by the real doctors
innocent eyes refusing to look in the same direction she stared
bodies safe under white lab coats
while our honesty withered underneath
Denise Davis (B.A. ’80/M.D. ’81) serves as associate director for faculty development at the San Francisco VA. She is also a professor at the University of California, San Francisco's medical school. Davis returned to UMKC in 2013 when she was asked to give the Marjorie S. Sirridge, M.D., Outstanding Women in Medicine Lecture.
Who Am I
ANDREA JEFFERSON 1999
I am the daughter of a daughter who works her fingers to the bone I am the child of a mother whose love is so strong That even in the most trying times, I am not alone
I am a peculiar mixture of sweet and sour I am a chameleon changing color hour after hour I am calm, I am fierce, I have undying power
I am 20 years of enduring complexity Private tears and pure perplexity I am the woman within the girl that strengthens me
Who am I
I am a student of love, not hate I am a believer of blessings and fate The belief that I am destined to be great
Andrea (Jefferson) Sample (BLA ’01/M.D. ’02) currently practices in the St. Louis area.