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Stories Beyond The Box
Pauline W. Chen
PREFACE: Twenty-five percent of the physicians, 10 percent of the nurses, and uncounted numbers of home health workers and nurse aides in the United States are immigrants. This is a huge but largely silent factor in American health care; despite the numbers, the voices of these health care workers are seldom heard in narrative or policy writing. What does this massive migration of talent mean for America and for the countries left behind? How does the legacy of the old country live on—and what about stigma, language, pride of accomplishment, and guilt of departure? What is it like to be an immigrant care-giver? In these essays, two physician-writers with immigrant roots ponder their experiences. Transplant surgeon Pauline Chen retells the folk tale of Urashima Taro and reflects on how it has bound three generations of her Taiwanese family together in their migration to America and her entrance into medicine. Then, in oncologist Alok Khorana’s essay, personal, cultural, and medical values jostle one another as he tells the story of his first night on call at a hospital in New York State after arriving from India three weeks into the start of his residency.
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UP UNTIL ABOUT A YEAR AGO, the greatest challenge when driving was not battling traffic but keeping my twin pre-schoolers occupied. One morning, when I was about to play yet another children’s music CD, I heard my father’s voice. Beyond the highway, in my mind’s eye, I saw him leaning back, eyes closed, and speaking in a tone as deep as the pitch of a heartbeat. I heard each of his words; but then, as always happened, he disappeared, his voice hanging for a moment in the air, then evaporating like smoke into the sky. Dark waves rolled . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Having Experiences Live On
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