Welcome to Narrative Medicine & Writing!
The author, teacher, and physician Danielle Ofri explains in an interview for the New England Journal of Medicine, “More than those things we’ve seen in text books and lectures, we remember the patients we’ve seen and their stories.” Simply by the nature of the job, healthcare workers are allowed into the private lives of their patients. This intimacy requires a tremendous amount of empathy, open communication, and respect.
What better way to build these skills than through reading, writing, and discussing literature? Literature opens the doors to a wide range of diverse human experience, yet it also allows us to tap into a universal connectedness. As psychiatrist and Safe Space Radio host Dr. Anne Hallward says, “The most personal is the most universal.” Stories connect us, inspire us, and teach us how to understand each other. And through the stories offered in great literature, healthcare students realize that every case, every day, is different and that each set of circumstances has to be studied and looked at critically before decisions are made.
When health professionals and students explore literature together, the benefits include:
- Increased empathy for patients
- Improved interpersonal skills
- Improved communication skills
- Expanded cultural awareness
- Expanded understanding of personal vulnerabilities and fears
- Time to process multi-faceted ethical dilemmas
We will listen to and read stories with care and curiosity, ask lots of thoughtful questions, explore our own experiences, and always, always treat each other with the utmost respect. It is my hope that the reading, writing, and discussion you experience this semester will stay with you as you finish your undergraduate and graduate education and make your way into your career—whatever that may be. I’m looking forward to sharing a wonderful semester with you!
