Narrative Medicine
Program overview
Narrative medicine is a practice where medicine collides with humanities. It brings healthcare providers of varying disciplines together without our patients, colleagues and healthcare system allowing those people to connect our individual experiences through literature, art and self-reflection. By practicing narrative medicine, our hearts and our minds are open to different experiences, and thoughts and feelings that we may have not explored in the past. Narrative medicine can give us the opportunity to self-reflect on our experiences, relate to one another, embrace our creativity, find new insights into our lives and bring rewards to our personal and professional lives. Furthermore, it allows us to improve our empathy for our patients and provider better care to those that we serve.
Who benefits
Our patients
Improves our empathy and understanding of patients which will allow our patients to have better care. Some potential improved outcomes in different illness. Patients feel better understood, which may have a therapeutic role in the treatment of their illnesses and increase their personal engagement in their care.
Healthcare workers
The program could lead to enhanced self-reflection and self-awareness. It could also improve job satisfaction, foster an enjoyment and practice of being creative, and allow personal reward for the work. It also allows individuals to identify more broadly with the healthcare community and reduce burn out.
Healthcare students
The program could lead to improved communication skills, and improved cultural competency through understanding different perspectives, thereby potentially reducing biases.
Our program
At the WVU School of Medicine, we have introduced narrative medicine to learners of all medical experience. We currently lead a series of three narrative medicine sessions with third-year medical students on their internal medicine clerkship in which they practice a variety of literary prompts and art. We lead similar sessions in our internal medicine residency program with all residents.
In May of 2022, we started a monthly narrative medicine session for the Department of Medicine, as well as any others that are interested. Each month, we come together to practice a different piece, reflect on our thoughts, and share our experiences with one another. We also will send out a weekly written prompt for anyone to spend time in self-reflection.
During the sessions, participants will interact with a prompt. This may be response to a written prompt, reading a literature piece or poem, listening to a song or watching a film. Together, we have a discussion on our thoughts and questions that came up as we interacted with the piece. We then do a written response to the piece the that we worked with. It is encouraged to share the writing out loud but is not required.
After the narrative medicine sessions, participants will continue to process their time spent with other participants, what they heard, how they feel, etc. This may allow them to further process their thoughts and feelings more thoroughly allowing for enhanced clarity. Participants may reduce their feelings of being burn out, allow them to feel a sense of pride and identify more broadly with the healthcare community. They may feel personally rewarded for practicing something outside of the typical medicine realm, and brining creativity to their profession that they otherwise have not done.