MDE 8048: Narrative Medicine 15-16

Contact:

Davida Leayman
Allentown, PA 18101
Ph: 484-862-3067
Davida_M.Leayman@lvhn.org

This elective will introduce medical students to narrative skills in clinical practice and to the power and influence of stories in patient-centered care. Students will develop and practice skills in the three main areas of narrative competence (attention, representation, and affiliation), learn to integrate these narrative skills into clinical settings both diagnostically and therapeutically, and strengthen their ability to perceive and to communicate complex information effectively and persuasively. Students will participate in seminars that focus on critical and close reading of narrative texts, discussion of the multidisciplinary theories informing narrative medicine, skill development workshops on collecting narratives, and direct clinical work with patients collecting, writing and analyzing narratives.

Objectives

Recognize the social, cultural, familial/communal, political and personal significance of illness narratives.
Develop narrative competence ("the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness") by practicing the core narrative clinical skills of attention, representation, and affiliation.
Identify and develop leadership skills that enable students to listen to and learn from stories, and act to bring about change in supportive ways.
Identify key elements of narrative by conducting close readings of mulitple narratives from different sources and in different venues (text, interview, etc).
Expand interpersonal communication skills, capacity for actionable empathy, cultural competence and moral agency through exposure to narrative and participation in narrative exercises.
Demonstrate how to collect, analyze, write and present a medical narrative.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated by the course director and faculty member at the completion of the course. Oral and written narratives (patient & self) will be evaluated for depth of understanding and applying course concepts, basic presentation skills, and ability to show a connection to social, cultural, and political contexts. Questions to course readings will be evaluated on level of reflection and incorporation of course concepts and terms. Grades are determined by: 50% graded write up, 25% oral presentation, 25% responses to course readings. If prior approval for patient narrative is not granted, alternate collection of patient narrative must be approved by course director.