Over the past few months Raphy Rosen has been sending us updates from his job as the CSSR-TCC intern at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center. He’s walked us through stories of former beauty queens, dabblers in polytheism, lovebirds, and resident cheerleaders, to name a few. While these stories are moving and more often… read more

Raphy‘s last account chronicled the bright side of living at TCC; the camaraderie and playfulness that at times exudes from the patients. This sunny reality is made much more exciting by the contrasting darkness of that to which it is opposed. While hospitals strive to cultivate health, they are inevitably overshadowed by illness and loss…. read more

Some children remark that as they grow older, the roles they play with their parents seem to switch. The cared for become the caregiver and vice versa. This seemingly cyclical reversion to a time of jovial frivolity does not escape the patients at TCC. With his ever-reliable dry wit Raphy brings us a short anecdote that likens… read more

A quick note: I spoke with one of the nurse managers, Ms. Rose Smith, who has a background in palliative care and worked as a hospice nurse for many years. She made one particularly interesting point about palliative care which is well worth sharing: Ms. Smith hates the word “expired”, which is common parlance in… read more

At the center of the CSSR’s mission is a desire to inspire discussion, be it through lectures, seminars, or interpersonal conversations. Therefore we talk, we write, we blog, and now we even tweet. No, we do not claim to have mastered the science of ornithology, but we have created a Twitter account, and hope that… read more

Each week or so when Raphy sends me his next installment of posts on his time at Terence Cardinal Cooke Medical Center, I open the files, begin to read, and am immediately taken in by the candidness of his observations. Almost all of Raphy’s posts include one or more vignettes concerning the life and experiences… read more

It is easy to take the relationship between body and mind for granted. We wake up in the morning, kick the alarm clock across the room, and pull the sheets back over our heads with little thought. There are few people who would simultaneously consider the neural activity that precipitated their habitual movements while burrowing… read more

In his next posts Raphy Rosen relays stories of TCC’s one-woman cheering squad, and makes a case for the importance of input from nursing assistants in the doctor’s decisions on treatment. To learn more about the CSSR-TCC internship click here. 7- Inspiring patients Those of you who have been following these posts might recall a… read more

In his time at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center our intrepid intern, Raphy Rosen, has learned of the intricacies of staff-patient relationships. In his next two posts, Raphy discusses the complications of closeness and asks the deceptively simple question, who cares about care? 5- Not too Attached One of the dilemmas that a… read more

One of the oldest time-tested truths is that actions have consequences, both good and bad. The Old Testament tells us the story of Adam, who sacrificed a rib to create Eve, which provided him with a much needed companion, and gave the world described by the Old Testament its first mother. Soon thereafter Eve took… read more