The experience of an English professor dying of ovarian cancer in Margaret Edson’s play Wit shows that both literary and medical discourse obfuscate and objectify rather than promote communication of “simple human truths” that dignify life and death.

Distinctions in garb worn by health care professionals have their drawbacks, to the degree that reinforcing the differences between team members can reinforce rigid role divisions and hierarchical inequities that undermine teamwork.

Visual literacy modules can help trainees learn to integrate narrative and visual information in clinical encounters. The medical humanities curriculum at Australia’s Bond University uses art to build students’ diagnostic skills.

The symbol of the Hanged Man in the traditional tarot deck is relevant to the medical student's transformation into a doctor.

Multiple pieces of reclaimed pallet wood are sculpted into a lateral cerebrum and a gradient of burned wood visually represents a crisis among health care professionals.

Some patients’ stories can be hard to tell and hard to listen to, especially in pressured, time-pinched clinical environments.

A self-portrait in bold colors depicts an experience of imposterhood in medicine.

Health professional students often attend lectures equating resiliency with self-care.