The Hive

If our Thanksgiving post taught us anything, it’s that telling the truth out loud still hits a nerve. We said what a lot of physicians have felt for years: being on call for the holidays does suck. It’s lonely, it’s disorienting, and it’s one of the clearest reminders that medicine is built on the quiet expectation that you will always give more than you have. That post struck a chord because it wasn’t performative gratitude or the usual “honored to serve” script. It was real. And for many of you, it may have been the first time anyone validated those feelings without immediately following it up with guilt.

What we heard back—DMs, comments, emails—wasn’t just agreement. It was relief. Relief that someone finally said the part doctors are trained to swallow. Relief that naming the resentment, the exhaustion, the grief that comes with missing your own life didn’t make you ungrateful or unprofessional. It made you human.

And that’s the bigger truth we’re carrying into December: physicians don’t need another pep talk about resilience. They need permission to tell the truth. The truth that even though you love the work, you’re allowed to feel angry about the cost. You’re allowed to feel lonely on a holiday shift. You’re allowed to feel the weight of being essential without pretending it doesn’t hurt. None of that makes you weak. It makes you a person trying to survive a system that often forgets you are one.

December is supposed to be reflective, but for doctors, it’s often the month where the pressure turns invisible. Everyone else winds down; you gear up. Everyone else posts year-in-review highlights; you’re just trying to keep your list under control. So let this be a reminder - your feelings are not a liability. Community is not optional. And naming what feels heavy doesn’t make you “negative”; you can’t integrate your emotions if you don’t process them.

As we close out the year at The Hippocratic Collective, that’s the energy we’re carrying forward: more honesty, less performance. More connection, less guilt. More spaces where doctors can show up as full humans - not just as roles, titles, or output machines. Because if this last week revealed anything, it’s this: when physicians finally speak plainly about their reality, the whole room nods.

Ex Vivo

We are so proud of the inaugural issue of our new magazine, Ex Vivo, and all of the incredible artists and team members that collaborated to make it happen. If you have not had the chance to see it, check it out below.

What Is Ex Vivo?

A digital magazine publishing the work of residents, fellows and medical students at the intersection of medicine, art, and lived experience. We look for visual art, essays, poetry, photography, comics, memoir fragments, anatomical sketches, mixed-media anything that resonates with life inside or after medicine.

Your Podcast Binge List

We linked some YouTube and Spotify pages for you, but click here to listen to any of our shows on the platform of your choice.

• Social Rounds - Tony Chin-Quee, MD, Frances Mei Hardin, MD + Ryan Montoya, MD - Doctors Give Terrible Feedback

• Fem MD - Lauren Umstattd, MD & Dr. Melyssa Hancock - Don’t Lose Yourself to IVF

• Surgeons with Purpose - Mel Thacker, MD - From Breakdown to Breakthrough with Dr. Courtney McKeown

• Surgeon, Interrupted - Frances Mei Hardin, MD & Dr. Sophie Engelhardt - Leaving Medicine For A Life That Fits

• The Other Human in the Room - Joan Chan, MD - The Power of the Pause

A Few Of Our Favorite 'Progress Notes' From November

How Physicians Can Navigate Conflict With Integrity

By Mel Thacker, MD

The question isn’t how to eliminate conflict. The question is how to relate to one another with integrity while maintaining healthy boundaries and a willingness to engage in necessary, honest conversation. To do that well, it helps to understand a few core concepts.

The Mother of Horror: Grief, Creation & Medicine in Frankenstein

By Sacha McBain, PhD

Frankenstein is not only the origin of modern horror but also one of the early and formative examinations of medical trauma. It captures the aftermath of medicine’s innovation, the grief that lingers when intervention fails, and the silence that follows when we cannot face that loss. Shelley’s novel, and the genre she founded, continue to ask what happens when we try to master what should be mourned, and what it costs us when we deny the humanity of others, and ourselves.

Why Is It So Hard To Celebrate Myself?

By Iya Agha, DO

That mindset runs deep in medicine. We’re trained to be humble, to minimize ourselves, to never let success “go to our heads.” Somewhere along the way, we’ve confused humility with silence. As if being proud of ourselves somehow makes us less deserving.

Why Being On Call For Thanksgiving Sucks

By Mel Thacker, MD

There’s a particular loneliness that comes with walking past empty hallways while the rest of the hospital is dimmed to holiday mode. An ache in knowing your loved ones are gathered somewhere you aren’t. A singular kind of mental gymnastics involved in convincing yourself that Thanksgiving dinner on a random Monday in December is “basically the same.”

Explore Our Growing Podcast Network

Here’s what’s live and ready for your next commute, call-room break, or coffee run:

• Social Rounds - Tony Chin-Quee, MD + Frances Mei Hardin, MD

• Fem MD - Lauren Umstattd, MD

• Surgeons with Purpose - Mel Thacker, MD

• The Other Human in the Room - Joan Chan, MD

• Beyond the Scope - Andy Nguyen, MD

• Surgeon, Interrupted - Frances Mei Hardin, MD

Want to Get Involved?

Since launching, we’ve been blown away by how many physicians have reached out asking, “How can I get involved?”

Here’s how:

• Submit your writing for consideration on our blog

• Pitch us a creative idea or original column

• Apply to be a guest on a podcast

• Follow us and share our content on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube 

The Collective only works because of voices like yours, and there’s always room for one more.

Until next month,
The HC Team

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