State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

CSSR-TCC

  • Throught-Provoking Words from Dr. Robert Pollack

    For the past year we have posted the observations of our students as they work with patients and physicians at the Terrance Cardinal Cooke Hospital, a palliative hospital for people who are facing death in the coming days, weeks or months.  These essays are powerful evidence for the importance of the CSSR’s working assumption that…

  • Following Footsteps, Venturing Forward

    During Summer of 2011, CSSR interns Huili Zhu and Ashley Shaw, undergraduates at Columbia Engineering ’12 and Columbia College ’13, respectively, will be following Raphy Rosen’s footsteps. They will devote time, thought, and new ideas to palliative care research at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center… Please visit the CSSR websites for future updates: http://thecssr.wordpress.com/

  • What They See: A Final Account from TCC

    Over the past few months Raphy Rosen has been sending us updates from his job as the CSSR-TCC intern at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center. He’s walked us through stories of former beauty queens, dabblers in polytheism, lovebirds, and resident cheerleaders, to name a few. While these stories are moving and more often…

  • The Infinite Space Between Life and Death: 3 Case Reports from Raphy Rosen

    Raphy‘s last account chronicled the bright side of living at TCC; the camaraderie and playfulness that at times exudes from the patients. This sunny reality is made much more exciting by the contrasting darkness of that to which it is opposed. While hospitals strive to cultivate health, they are inevitably overshadowed by illness and loss.…

  • Playful Times at TCC

    Some children remark that as they grow older, the roles they play with their parents seem to switch. The cared for become the caregiver and vice versa. This seemingly cyclical reversion to a time of jovial frivolity does not escape the patients at TCC. With his ever-reliable dry wit Raphy brings us a short anecdote that likens…

  • A Note on the Vocabulary of Death from Raphy Rosen

    A quick note: I spoke with one of the nurse managers, Ms. Rose Smith, who has a background in palliative care and worked as a hospice nurse for many years. She made one particularly interesting point about palliative care which is well worth sharing: Ms. Smith hates the word “expired”, which is common parlance in…

  • The Place of Religion and Doctor-Patient Relationships at TCC

    Each week or so when Raphy sends me his next installment of posts on his time at Terence Cardinal Cooke Medical Center, I open the files, begin to read, and am immediately taken in by the candidness of his observations. Almost all of Raphy’s posts include one or more vignettes concerning the life and experiences…

  • Dealing with Disorder: Stories from TCC’s Huntington’s Disease Unit

    It is easy to take the relationship between body and mind for granted. We wake up in the morning, kick the alarm clock across the room, and pull the sheets back over our heads with little thought. There are few people who would simultaneously consider the neural activity that precipitated their habitual movements while burrowing…

  • Tales of the inspired and the inspiring: Notes from a CSSR-TCC intern

    In his next posts Raphy Rosen relays stories of TCC’s one-woman cheering squad, and makes a case for the importance of input from nursing assistants in the doctor’s decisions on treatment. To learn more about the CSSR-TCC internship click here. 7- Inspiring patients Those of you who have been following these posts might recall a…

  • Throught-Provoking Words from Dr. Robert Pollack

    For the past year we have posted the observations of our students as they work with patients and physicians at the Terrance Cardinal Cooke Hospital, a palliative hospital for people who are facing death in the coming days, weeks or months.  These essays are powerful evidence for the importance of the CSSR’s working assumption that…

  • Following Footsteps, Venturing Forward

    During Summer of 2011, CSSR interns Huili Zhu and Ashley Shaw, undergraduates at Columbia Engineering ’12 and Columbia College ’13, respectively, will be following Raphy Rosen’s footsteps. They will devote time, thought, and new ideas to palliative care research at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center… Please visit the CSSR websites for future updates: http://thecssr.wordpress.com/

  • What They See: A Final Account from TCC

    Over the past few months Raphy Rosen has been sending us updates from his job as the CSSR-TCC intern at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center. He’s walked us through stories of former beauty queens, dabblers in polytheism, lovebirds, and resident cheerleaders, to name a few. While these stories are moving and more often…

  • The Infinite Space Between Life and Death: 3 Case Reports from Raphy Rosen

    Raphy‘s last account chronicled the bright side of living at TCC; the camaraderie and playfulness that at times exudes from the patients. This sunny reality is made much more exciting by the contrasting darkness of that to which it is opposed. While hospitals strive to cultivate health, they are inevitably overshadowed by illness and loss.…

  • Playful Times at TCC

    Some children remark that as they grow older, the roles they play with their parents seem to switch. The cared for become the caregiver and vice versa. This seemingly cyclical reversion to a time of jovial frivolity does not escape the patients at TCC. With his ever-reliable dry wit Raphy brings us a short anecdote that likens…

  • A Note on the Vocabulary of Death from Raphy Rosen

    A quick note: I spoke with one of the nurse managers, Ms. Rose Smith, who has a background in palliative care and worked as a hospice nurse for many years. She made one particularly interesting point about palliative care which is well worth sharing: Ms. Smith hates the word “expired”, which is common parlance in…

  • The Place of Religion and Doctor-Patient Relationships at TCC

    Each week or so when Raphy sends me his next installment of posts on his time at Terence Cardinal Cooke Medical Center, I open the files, begin to read, and am immediately taken in by the candidness of his observations. Almost all of Raphy’s posts include one or more vignettes concerning the life and experiences…

  • Dealing with Disorder: Stories from TCC’s Huntington’s Disease Unit

    It is easy to take the relationship between body and mind for granted. We wake up in the morning, kick the alarm clock across the room, and pull the sheets back over our heads with little thought. There are few people who would simultaneously consider the neural activity that precipitated their habitual movements while burrowing…

  • Tales of the inspired and the inspiring: Notes from a CSSR-TCC intern

    In his next posts Raphy Rosen relays stories of TCC’s one-woman cheering squad, and makes a case for the importance of input from nursing assistants in the doctor’s decisions on treatment. To learn more about the CSSR-TCC internship click here. 7- Inspiring patients Those of you who have been following these posts might recall a…