Raise your Voice, Share your Story
After the murder of one of our Physician colleagues while working in his regular outpatient clinic, stories and poems of similar events and struggles in medicine started being shared online. They touched our hearts, and made us realize the power of the collective, voices raised in chorus can make or break empires, allow for advocacy efforts, and make us feel less alone and isolated, giving us a way to process the struggles and successes of medicine and thus, also, heal our hearts and minds from the collective weight of being a 21st century Physician with the ongoing Covid pandemic and beyond. This is a place for you to share your story, raise your voice and thus, in the process, Heal and Be Healed by our collective stories , poems, and reflections of struggle and success in medicine.
Find Out the Exact Steps to Get Published in Our Collective Today
Testimonials
"I'm tired. I feel like everyone wants my money (physician college, doctor associations, doctor federation, medical protective agencies) but nobody is there to defend me really..."
-Anonymous
"I can’t help but think as physicians we need to do more. We are a powerful group. We need to stand together and as a group say never again. We need to push for changes to make our lives better. Physicians are dying from suicide, being murdered at work and leaving as a result of burnout." -Anonymous
SuBmission Examples
Stories Submitted by other Physicians for Publication
NonFiction Story
Think about this;
Patient at walk in clinic came in upset about another doc, yelling and screaming. Tried to push way into exam room.
I have, what I deem, extreme safety precautions at walk in. Systematic exam room use. Me between door. Always a nurse within ear shot. Phone with me. (Considering a panic button now)
Patient was calmed.
Asked to leave. Wouldn’t. Police called. We locked ourselves in back room. They came but said they couldn’t do anything except escort patient out. Assured me safe to leave.
Walked to car by coworker.
(Parked immediately out back door)
I pulled away and the patient was waiting parked behind a garbage can and tried to block me in. I swerved and drove away as fast as I could.....
Called police again.
They said they’d “look into it”
I don’t know what I could have done different other than never leave the back room of the clinic????
They follow us home. They know where we live.
We need some advocacy!!!
If we could actually tell patients this behaviour is not acceptable and there was repercussion, maybe then we would get somewhere.
Poem
The Space Between;
Sometimes this job is hard
Drenching in the sweat of
The unfulfilled dreams of the ones you serve
Gruesome details and worse yet
Endless pain and sorrow
You all come to me in sadness
Mired in shame
Not knowing it is not your fault
Complex and volatile
Distressed and wrenching
In my gut
A knife twisting
Take a deep breath
Exhale slowly
It will be okay.
Should I process this?
Or avoid thinking it?
I don’t want to make a big deal.
The image planted firmly in my brain
So much pain
And anguish
And unfairness
On all sides of this equation
So much ambiguity
Where is the line between right and wrong?
Where do I find myself
Here serving the service members
And knowing that you’d rather not know
Or hear of the atrocities
Or the things that happen overseas
In war and peace
Where we live
Somewhere between
Painful and sorrowful
Hopeful and purposeful
Living somewhere in between.
Reflective Creative Writing
Doctors Don’t Have Purple Hair;
Sometimes the expectations
Are just too high
Unrealistic
We the public demand
That the white coat should mean
All knowing, ever caring, all the time listening
No detail missed, no stone uncovered
In ever shorter time
And don’t forget to check the boxes for quality scores and billing
Run ever faster, do more, push harder
In medical school the crucible began grinding
Molding
Burning
Trials and tribulations endured
And what is left after the firenado?
Is there room for any me in those ashes?
At what point does commitment become self neglect?
When does my faithfulness mean my hair can not be purple
Because “that’s not how doctors look”
How much more must we sacrifice
How much more of ourselves subjugated
To serve those who scorn our offering
Must not stop
Must finish what you start
Roars for perfection, omniscient and omnipotent
And always with a smile
And humility
Despite the abuse from all sides
A tiny but powerful voice whispers in the circle:
When do I commit to me?
The Submission Process
Follow Our Easy Submission Process and our Editors will Get in Contact . Deadlines for Submission Vary by Topic.
Step One;
Click Submit my Story Button and Fill out the Online Form.
Fill out the Online Submission Form. Make sure you have your written story accessible as you have two options to upload, copy/paste or upload file. You will be asked to either copy and paste or upload your file into the submission form. We are currently accepting multiple submissions around themes of violence experienced in medicine, Covid19, BiPoc experiences, and Stories of Loss and Success in Medicine.
Step Two;
An email confirming submission will be sent to your inbox and your writing will enter the Editing Process.
Upon submission of the online form, an email confirming your received story will be sent to your inbox. Your writing has entered the Editing Review Process. Congratulations!!
Step Three;
Once your Story is Ready for Publication, a Certificate of Contribution will be sent to your doorstep.
Our Editors are looking at various stories in an attempt to create a story line that will fit nicely into one publication. If your story is not right for the first publication in the series, no worries, there will be more books and more topics published. A certificate of Contribution will be sent to your doorstep upon Publication of the story and you will be notified in which book series your story will be featured.
Step Four;
Your Story is Published in a SpeakUpMD book!! You can now Buy the Book at a Heavily Reduced Authors Discount Rate to Share and/or Sell with your Friends, Family, and Colleagues.
Getting your Story, Poem or Reflection Published is quite the accomplishment!! Congratulations again!! As part of your contribution, you will have the option of purchasing various copies at a heavily discounted authors rate for you to share or sell with your friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours. The more people hear our stories, the more we can slowly inch towards making sustainable change in our medical systems, while also healing our own wounds in the process. We are all so proud of you Raising your Voice, Speaking Up and in the process allowing others to also Speak Up and Contribute to Ongoing Meaningful Change in Medicine.
About SpeakUpMD
SpeakUpMD is a Book Series highlighting a collection of stories, poems, reflections written by Physicians for Physicians in an effort to raise awareness, share our struggles and successes, and feel less isolated in the experiences and events that we go through during our medical careers.
Meet Dr. Irina
Founded by Dr. Irina Mihaescu, a Psychiatrist in clinical practice, Physician Advocate and Well-Being Specialist, Dr. Irina brings her own years of practicing narrative writing to the table for the benefit of the collective. She has a deep understanding of how healing the practice of writing can be to ones ability to process the struggles of medicine, turning them into bittersweet stories of success and optimism. She has been writing poems with no formal training for more than two decades, and she knows first hand how powerful it is to, not only write to heal, but to also share this writing with others, so that they can heal as well, using the power of shared storytelling and conversation.
