Nakiya Showell Reflects on Infant Patient Death in Essay
Nakiya Showell, MD, MPH, MHS, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, reflects on her experience caring for a terminal two-month-old patient in an essay for the website Closler. She describes how the relationship she was able to build with the patient’s family due, in large part, to Showell’s fluency in Spanish.
“I realized that I’d never cherished my ability to directly communicate with someone in their preferred language more than I did during that time,” says Showell. “No additional steps, no additional connectors; my words could be heard and understood as I intended and vice versa.”