Ben Taub Hospital, located in the heart of Houston, Texas, is the city's largest hospital for those who cannot afford medical care. Texas, in turn, is the US state with the country's largest uninsured population. Amid chaotic emergency rooms and busy hospital wards serving the most financially and medically vulnerable people, Ricardo Nuila, MD finds meaning and beauty through stories he hears from his patients. In addition to his duties as a hospitalist at Ben Taub Hospital, Dr. Nuila is an associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Humanities Expression and Arts Lab, as well as an author whose writings have appeared in the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the New York Times Sunday Review, and more. His 2023 book, The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine, explores the ups and downs of American medicine through the lens of patients he has encountered at Ben Taub. 

Over the course of our conversation, we discuss what it's like to practice in a safety net hospital, the power of narrative medicine in connecting with patients, and how clinicians can hold onto their strength of character, even when working in a system that often feels broken and indifferent to human suffering.

In this episode, we discuss: 

2:25 - How Dr. Nuila became drawn to both medicine and creative writing  

6:07 - The characteristics that define different types of hospitals 

12:06 - A patient story that exemplifies the experience of being a doctor at a public safety net hospital 

20:33 - How Dr. Nuila finds deeper meaning in providing care, even when faced with systemic circumstances that a doctor can’t fix

25:34 - Dr. Nuila’s advice for how to get through the moments when you feel like you are “at war” with gaps in the system 

42:32 - How narrative medicine and storytelling can make more effective clinicians 

45:45 - Dr. Nuila’s advice on how to make a career in medicine meaningful 

Dr. Ricardo Nuila can be found on Twitter/X at @Riconuila.

Dr. Nuila is the author of The People’s Hospital (2023).

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024