(mellow music)
- About six years ago now that they first discovered
the skin cancer on my nose.
I spent my teenage years as a lifeguard in Arizona
and I was very brown and pretty.
Paying the price for that now.
(mellow music)
It's been, I think five operations.
The radiation treatment damaged the bones
in the top of my mouth,
so they took a bone out of my leg.
So I can always tell people, "It doesn't matter where I am,
"I always have my foot in my mouth."
(mellow music) (feet tapping)
- I will be completing both a medical degree
and also a PhD here at Stanford.
I don't know yet what I wanna specialize in,
but I have some time to figure it out
because I'm in my second year now.
I think people go into medicine
for a wide variety of reasons and I think one part of it
is the really human aspect
because there's some part of our experiences
and some part of our core that really wants to help people.
(mellow music)
- Up until the last 10 years,
medical students really didn't have authentic connections
and interactions with patients, families, and caregivers
until their third or fourth year of medical school.
Over this last decade, Stanford and other schools
have started to bring patients into the classroom.
- So what we're doing that's new is having students
side by side with patients and experiencing
their medical school curriculum
from the angle of the patient, who's living in the world,
not only in clinic with a robe on
or in the hospital gravely ill.
So the Walk With Me course brings together
the students who want to connect with patients,
patients who want to connect with students,
and then a curriculum that organizes their experience
over a nine month period.
♪ And it's just like you ♪
- Michael and I, as far as I know,
were randomly assigned to be partners.
We meet pretty consistently in the same spot
and we chat about everything
from updates in school to how things are going with him,
his health, but also things we really do have in common
that we've found that we love, writing and reading.
- When the class required us to leave
what they called an artifact,
we decided to come up with writing a book together.
- He would write a chapter about himself,
whatever he was reflecting on.
And after I read his, I'd write about myself,
my relationship with him, Walk With Me, medical school,
anything that came to mind that kind of was sparked
by what he had written.
(mellow music)
- I grew content and accepted of changing
into what I expected to be the final stage of my life.
Sometimes I am simply being in the world,
immersed in the now.
I want to make it clear that this is perfectly adequate.
(mellow music)
- Would Michael have ever imagined his life to be like this?
Would he be surprised at the way he has shaped me
as I am becoming a doctor?
Perhaps in some years, we will both be reflecting
on our lives and thinking of the Stanford fountain,
and we will have those memories and feelings of contentment
bubble over somewhere deep inside of us.
(mellow music)
- I almost cried.
- I know, (laughs) I got a little choked up.
(mellow music)
- If students like Tara can take this experience
into their future practice,
they're just going to be better clinicians.
- Patients want a say in what goes on
in their own health and their healthcare,
and that starts with clinicians really being curious
about their patients as human beings who have priorities
that we can't know as clinicians without asking them.
(upbeat music)
- They just put us together and we were left
to try and decide if we liked each other or not,
which we were lucky that happened.
And there are things that I wanted to talk about
that really I didn't get to talk about with anyone else,
the things I'd gone through.
- To develop that friendship
that wasn't rooted in knowledge,
but was instead rooted in just who I am as a person,
I think reaffirmed what I thought medicine would be like.
To have that motivation, that someone like Michael
could have a better course of treatment,
it really inspires me to do that and pass it forward
and in as many ways as I can.
♪ Shine on ♪
♪ Don't waste a second time ♪
♪ Waiting for flashing lights ♪
♪ Shine on ♪
♪ Just shine on ♪
♪ You know you can't deny ♪
♪ I burn this bright ♪
♪ Just shine on ♪
♪ Shine on ♪
(upbeat music)
♪ Just shine on ♪
♪ Shine on ♪
(upbeat music)
♪ Just shine on ♪