↓Skip to main content
  1. Assignments/

Curiosity, Discovery, Existence—Introduction to Narrative Medicine [Seminar 1]

·2 mins·
Table of Contents

Welcome to the Medical Humanities Certificate! #

Seminar 1: Intro to Narrative Medicine and Preparing for publication. #

  • Thursday 9/19/2024 6:30-8pm - EBL 334 (Boardroom). Faculty: Michelle Izmaylov, Megan Dupuis, Chase Webber

Welcome to the VUMC GME Medical Humanities Certificate [2024-2025].

Our first Thursday evening seminar will serve as an introduction to principles of Narrative medicine as well as learning about how to prepare a piece for publication. The themes of the session will be: Curiosity, Discovery, and Existence. The assigned readings for this session can be found through the links on this page.

Pre - session reflection questions: #

  1. How can the interpretation of literature and art apply to your day to day lives as physicians?

  2. What is the relationship between being a reader and being a physician? What is the relationship between being a writer and being a physician?

  3. Consider an interaction you’ve had with a patient wherein the facts of the case were muddied by your feelings and interpretations of the case. This could be a positive or negative experience. Describe it.

  4. Did any of the readings particularly resonate with you? If so, why?

  5. In Reading #1 (Charon, 1989) she states “The conflicts about whether the meaning exists in the mind of the writer or the eye of the reader, and whether texts are “readable” or not—all these have profound implications when transposed to the clinical idiom.” What do you think she means by this?

  6. Can you think of a text, tv show, podcast, joke, or performance that has “logicoscientific knowledge” that is vastly enriched by “Narrative Knowledge”? ie, a show/program/book that is factual but only enriched by the narrative knowledge of the characters/events? (see Ref #2, Charon 2001).

  7. When reading the poem “Burnout” (Christman), what did you think about the sensory elements (touch, taste, sound, etc)? Who’s perspective is this written from, and are there multiple POV? What is the temporal structure? Are there metaphors or similes? Is the narrator near or far? Are they reliable? What is the mood? What is the motion of the poem? Same questions as above for “Standing Waves” (Christman).

  8. In the story Curiosity (Fitzgerald), the author argues that curiosity is how we will remain good physicians. How do you think the Medical Humanities could help us to maintain our curiosity?

Readings

Charon, Rita. 'Doctor-Patient/Reader-Writer: Learning to Find the Text.' Soundings: An Interdiscliplinary Journal, Vol.72, No 1 (Spring 1989), 137-152.
link
Charon, Rita. 'Narrative Medicine: A Model for Empathy, Reflection, Profession, and Trust.' JAMA. 2001;286(15):1897-1902. Doi:10.1001/jama.286.15.1897.
link
Charon, Rita et al. 'Definition of Narrative Medicine (excerpt)', Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford Univ Press, 2017.
link
Christman, Brian. 'Burnout.' Annals of Internal Medicine, 174:3(2021).
link
Christman, Brian. 'Standing Waves'. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172: 2(2020).
link
Fitzgerald, Faith T. 'Curiosity' Annals of Internal Medicine, 130:1(1999).
link
LaCombe, Brian. 'Playing God' Annals of Internal Medicine, 116:2(1992).
link
Kovalchik, Michael. "‘Playing God’ as an Act of Hope." Annals of Internal Medicine (1992)
link
Izmaylov, Michelle. 'Your Soul is Not Concrete (Survive, Anyway)' Academic Medicine. 91(12):1640-1641 (2016).
link
'Narrative Medicine: Every Patient Has a Story.' AAMC.org
link
↑