Hatpins.

Abstract

Hatpins is a first-person narrative that delves into a physician's experience of a patient death during the early years of residency. The essay reflects on the conflicted physician-patient relationships that can develop even over the short tenure of residency. While residency seeks to create medically prepared and compassionate physicians, this piece speaks to the importance of the often subtle learning that comes from ethical, social, and cultural aspects of both the lives and deaths of our patients.