UVA Med Student Plays Ukulele to Comfort Patients

In this video, UVA medical student Thomas Ball discusses why he started playing the ukulele for patients.

Thomas Ball was doing a clerkship on the general medicine ward when he started playing the ukulele for patients, with the encouragement of his attending, Dr. Scott Cornella, one of the internal medicine chief residents.

Thomas Ball, in his third year of medical school, found himself standing in a patient’s doorway, holding a ukulele. He scanned the room for IV poles and active interventions for the patient, who was blind and hard of hearing. Ball stood in the doorway and strummed a ukulele for a few minutes. Watching. Occasionally the patient would have trouble breathing. The end was near….

For complete story (by Harry Moxley, SOM Communications, 3/30/16), go to:
https://news.med.virginia.edu/blog/med-student-plays-ukulele-to-comfort-patients/

“During my last clerkship for general medicine, I was on 3 East, which has many palliative care patients. In my second week, I asked if it would be OK to bring in my ukulele. During that week, after writing notes and tucking in patients, I asked one of my patients if I could play for her. ‘That’d be great,’ she said.

After playing and talking for 45 minutes, I found myself needing to thank her for letting me play. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘I feel more human.’ She answered, ‘Thank you. I feel more human, too.’ “

– UVA Medical student Thomas Ball