Sometimes it's hard to recognize all the different communities to which we belong. I expected the hospital world to be divided between doctors and patients, but in reality, the borders are indistinct. These patients and their families probably don't recognize me as a separate individual among their many caregivers. But after devoting so much emotional energy to them, both personally and vicariously through my colleagues, I feel that on a deeper level, I belong to them, and they to me. Ellen Rothman, HMS '98, is a second-year pediatric resident at Children's Hospital in Boston.
All patient names are pseudonyms.