Terry Kind, MD, MPH, assistant dean for clinical education at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), was named editor for the In the Moment section of Academic Pediatrics, the official journal of the Academic Pediatrics Association. The ongoing role also places her as associate editor for the publication.
In the Moment focuses on narratives written by authors sharing their experiences in pediatrics, medical education, and research, as well as experiences with patients, mentors, policy and current events, and the relationships of those experiences to their personal lives and the lives of others. Kind, who also serves as professor of pediatrics at SMHS and Children's National Health System, explained that In the Moment incorporates voices of patients, trainees, and providers speaking about everything from day-to-day occurrences to the momentous events.
"I look forward to working with both seasoned authors and those new to writing in order to help shape their experiences into compelling narratives that speak to the reader," said Kind. "Words are powerful when crafted into impactful stories."
Throughout her career, Kind has been moved to share stories of experiences through writing, even through social media and blog platforms. She has contributed her own poems and narratives to journals over the years, including a poem about how primary care pediatrics involved all the senses and a piece about the newness of finding out a disease is incurable.
"When we are in the moment, we are listening. The currency of general pediatrics is found in words," Kind said. "While we can memorize and teach medical facts, in order to make a difference in our patients' lives and in our learners' capacity to serve, we need to make sense of those facts. We need stories."
