Making Sense, Space, and Meaning in the ICU | Adjoa Boateng, MD

Adjoa Boateng, MD has always felt drawn to helping those at the margins of society. An intensivist and physician-writer at Stanford, Dr. Boateng has found language to be a crucial part of not only her clinical work, but of her art as well. In a medical specialty that can often be mired in technical jargon and dehumanizing shorthand, she champions an even greater importance on the choice of words physicians use as a critical aspect of care.

In this episode, you will hear about: 

• Dr. Boateng’s career in helping individuals from marginalized populations - 1:51
• How she maintains a connection to the spiritual dimensions of medicine despite working in what can often be the most impersonal of medical settings, the ICU - 4:45
• Her reflection on a particularly transcendent moment with a patient approaching death - 7:21
• Making space for the sacred, even in the antiseptic rooms of a hospital - 9:57
• How she discovered her passion for narrative medicine and writing poetry - 15:40
• The importance of humanizing language, especially when talking to patients - 17:37
• The concept of “miracles” in medicine - 22:26
• The difficulties Dr. Boateng experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a new attending and new mother - 26:17
• The intense scrutiny she has experienced as a black woman working in medicine - 30:39
• A poem Dr. Boateng has been writing for her son about his birth - 35:23

Connect with Dr. Boateng on Twitter @BoatengMD.

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