Lessons From the Bedside

Lessons from the Bedside is a warm and inspiring book written by a medical student who shares with us his most personal thoughts about his first encounters with disease. It is a must read not only for medical students, but also for anyone that has been touched by the horrors and challenges of disease. Okun loans us his eyes, lets us peek into his personal thoughts, and attempts to let those who read the book find their own poetic voice. The book chronicles four years of medical school experiences and tells the real story of not only what medical school is really like, but also tells us how disease affects everyone who comes close to it. Prose and poems in Lessons from the Bedside were transcribed by Okun onto napkins, note cards, book covers, progress notes, and patient order sheets as the author experienced the emotions that inspired the words. He tucked his writings snugly into his lab coat pockets and later removed them to compile the book.Lessons from the Bedside is distributed each year to entering freshmen medical students at the University of Florida and many other medical schools. It has also quickly become an important and favorite read for students of all professions, as well as for patients, family members, and anyone who has encountered the challenges of disease. The book was featured on the Harvard University website A Window on My Mind, where patients and family members use writing to express their feelings about disease. Included in the book are the illustrations of Melissa Anne Bloch, who as a medical student received the book and was so inspired by it that she drew images to capture the words. Lessons from the Bedside is a classic that belongs on the shelf of every house, within reaching distance of those who need inspiration or are suffering from the direct of indirect effects of disease.

Michael Scott Okun entered medical school at the age of twenty after completing a degree in history at Florida State University. During his medical studies he founded Kaleidoscope, an interdisciplinary group of students dedicated to bringing art to the bedside of patients. He began writing Lessons From the Bedside on his first day of classes. The book chronicles four years of experiences and tells the real story of what medical school is like. Prose and poems were transcribed onto napkins, books covers, progress notes, patient order sheets, and note cards as the author experienced the emotions that inspired the words. He tucked his writings snugly into his lab coat pockets and later removed them to compile the book Lessons from the Bedside.