Don’t you love those quiet moments in the Break Room?

Wherever we work, the break room is a place to connect with others, melt away realities, and revive our senses. It is a haven in the midst of our busy day. We established Our Break Room to honor and witness people who work in health care.

Our Voices feature spotlights your poetry, essays, music, visual and digital images covering topics on the minds of healthcare workers. Our Rays feature includes poetry and artwork that kept us steady during the COVID-19 pandemic. And our new “Books & People” feature spotlights the work of artists, thinkers, and health humanities educators that inspire and move us.

Please add your voice and experiences to this collection. Or take a deep breath and explore, refresh, and refuel.

  • Rachel Kowalsky, MD, MPH

    FOUNDING EDITOR

    I am a children’s emergency medicine physician, an avid reader, and a writer.  Words are material to me.  They are a way to connect, a way to make meaning of experience, and a way to bear witness to all of the joy and sadness that are part of our daily practice.

    I founded Our Break Room to enter into conversation with others in the field, hear what they think and feel in their own words, and share it with others. I love the editorial process, especially supporting writers as they find words and shape their stories. There is nothing like a finished piece of work newly posted on Our Break Room.

    You can find my writings here, here and here. And this is my latest short story published September, 2023.

  • Shari Platt, MD

    FOUNDING EDITOR

    Sharing stories during the COVID-19 crisis has fostered alliances and provided immeasurable comfort to our healthcare providers. We are grateful to everyone for your incredible and selfless work on every line. We want to hear from you.

    I have dedicated my life to my family, children, and medicine. In my free time, I love music, broadway, arts, and laughter. I send my prayers to all of the artists and actors enduring this difficult time.

  • Mehrin Islam, MD

    ASSOCIATE EDITOR

    I am a pediatric emergency medicine physician, a dancer, and an artist. With a story spanning several countries and states, a multilingual background, and diversified education, art has remained a consistent outlet for me. Painting, to me, is a language - one that balances sight and touch, surface and depth, knowledge and intuition. It mirrors what I admire about medicine, which, too, emphasizes creative communication.

    Medicine requires the harvesting of elements of the patient’s perception and experience; the composition, in its entirety, paints a comprehensive understanding of the individual’s immediate illness. Correspondingly, the treatment is a symphony of biological, physical, social, mental, and emotional remedies. I joined Our Break Room to expand on this valuable collaboration between art and medicine, so that everyone can have the opportunity to share in this language.

  • Jenna Kwon

    EDITORIAL INTERN

    I am a first-year medical student at Brown Alpert Medical School. I studied Health & Human Biology and Economics at Brown University. Being part of the Our Break Room team, I aim to create a comforting space for healthcare professionals, countering the complexities of medicine.

    As an aspiring physician writer, I am dedicated to amplifying diverse voices and bridging healthcare and storytelling.

  • Myles Ringel

    INTERN ALUMNUS

    I am an undergraduate at Brown University on the pre-medical track and am majoring in Empathy in Practice, an independent program studying the experience of empathy in everyday life. Beyond my academics, I am heavily involved in the fine arts with a focus on theater.

    Stories about pain, dreams, loss, and the human experience give us a way to understand one another by translating otherwise indescribable emotions. I joined Our Break Room to help share these stories with the hope that they will allow us to feel connected to ourselves and others in these times.

“Like a hospital break room, this online destination is a virtual gathering place for healthcare workers from across the country to come together and decompress over poems, essays, artwork, and personal testimonials.”

“Shortly thereafter, faculty and staff began spontaneously sending their own original work. Pieces that captured the historical moment were posted on the website, which over time has become an oasis for health care workers to take a break and recharge.”

In the Media

“Ourbreakroom.org has provided a welcome respite from the brutal daily reality of the pandemic. After a long and grueling shift, where fear, loss, and fatigue were prevalent, reading an inspirational poem or listening to melodious music helped restore mental grit.”

Thank you to all the artists whose works are displayed here.

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We are not affiliated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with Weill Cornell Medicine.