![\"olivia-sacks-2\"](\"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/03\/olivia-sacks-2.jpg\")
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When Olivia Sacks \u201919 was four years old she announced her professional intentions to her parents\u2014she wanted to deliver babies. Though prescient, she fell in love with poetry and followed her heart, which eventually led her to Dartmouth and a degree in poetry and literary criticism.<\/p>\n
After graduating in 2010 and unsure of what she wanted to do with her life, the adventurous Sacks set off for San Francisco. Though jobless, she headed to California sure of two things: \u201cI didn\u2019t want to live through another winter on the East Coast,\u201d the New York City native laughingly recalls. \u201cAnd I wasn\u2019t ready for medical school.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a personal perspective, Sacks says, her decision to move to San Francisco was one of the best she has made\u2014it allowed her to explore her interests, which ultimately guided her toward medicine.<\/p>\n
Sustained by poetry while cycling through various jobs during her four years in the Bay City, Sacks learned something important about herself in the course of teaching yoga: helping people feel good in their bodies made her happy\u2014she realized she was ready for medical school. \u201cThat was my moment, during yoga training, and it was a scary moment,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause I identified myself as someone who was humanities-oriented, I wasn\u2019t confident I could learn biology and memorize facts. But I was inspired to learn about the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
I realized every organ in the body has its own story, so I crafted a narrative for each one.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
- Olivia Sacks '19<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
With a clear goal in mind, Sacks enrolled in a post-baccalaureate program in biology. She knew it would be challenging, but drawing on her narrative skills she devised a novel approach to learning. \u201cI remember studying the kidney and thinking how interesting it was\u2014and how it has its own story,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized every organ in the body has its own story, so I crafted a narrative for each one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Influenced by the strong sense of community in San Francisco, which aligns with Sacks\u2019 personal philosophy along with her interest in shared stories, she began working with the city\u2019s most vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n
At San Francisco General Hospital and Potrero Hill Health Center, where she was a medical scribe, she saw first-hand the role literacy plays in managing personal health. Because of patients\u2019 varying levels of literacy and understanding, she observed how physicians rejected professional jargon and turned away from physician-dominated conversations with patients. She watched her mentors carefully choose their words when discussing illness, trying to use language that enabled patients to understand the ramifications of their disease. It\u2019s no secret that health outcomes are tied to social problems related to poverty and poor access to education\u2014this piqued Sacks\u2019 interest in how literacy affects management of chronic diseases and overall health.<\/p>\n
She recalls a personal experience: \u201cOn behalf of a doctor, I wrote a letter to a patient who needed blood work. But when the doctor read what I\u2019d written, she said, \u2018You can\u2019t write like that\u2014you need to get into the mind and reading level of the patient and write from there.\u2019\u201d Her comments revealed how important it is to be sensitive to how different people communicate and understand their illnesses.<\/p>\n
The language of medicine is not everyday language and Sacks is well versed in the varied language we each use daily. Throughout our lives we oscillate regularly between the way we speak with work colleagues and strangers, to the way we talk with friends. \u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what we need to be cognizant of with our patients regardless of their literacy level or their background,\u201d she says. \u201cWe must meet them in the space between patient and doctor to find a shared language and common understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because poetry is about connecting to the human condition, for Sacks that same connection is what is important about medicine. \u201cThere will always be patients who follow their own plan\u2014it\u2019s human nature. They either have too much going on in their lives or they don\u2019t have a solid understanding of why they need to manage their diseases. The best thing we can do as doctors is to listen and make that connection so they see us as their ally, someone they can trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Living a life of service is something that makes me feel complete and fulfilled. That\u2019s what drives me now, helping people alleviate their suffering.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
- Olivia Sacks '19<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Observing the same warmth and sense of community she felt in San Francisco, Sacks says people at the Geisel School of Medicine care about making a difference in the world, which she finds inspirational. And the school\u2019s non-competitive atmosphere contributes to its supportive, altruistic community and spirit of cooperation. \u201cWe are willing to lift each other up if we are stumbling,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n
Sacks still follows her heart, \u201cI really love helping people feel better. Living a life of service is something that makes me feel complete and fulfilled. That\u2019s what drives me now, helping people alleviate their suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
But you never forget your first love\u2014and at the end of a long day she says, \u201cAll I really want to do is to read a poem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For medical student Olivia Sacks ’19, medicine and poetry have a lot in common\u2014both are connected to the human condition and to something greater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[692,691,693,442],"class_list":["post-6477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-literacy","tag-md-student","tag-poetry","tag-student-profile","post_format-post-format-aside","author-12"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/03\/olivia-Sacks-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-1Gt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6477"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6489,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477\/revisions\/6489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}