Medicine and writing aren’t mutually exclusive for Rita Charon, director of the Program in Narrative Medicine and professor of Clinical Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Since introducing the Master of Science degree program a year ago, Charon has worked to develop interpersonal skills in faculty members and would-be medical students—which will be particularly crucial, she says, when interacting with patients and colleagues.
“Narrative medicine is fortified or enriched with the narrative skill of understanding what stories people are telling you and you telling your own story,” Charon said.
The one-year academic program started as a desire to teach narrative skills in order to strengthen the interpersonal experiences of the patient-doctor relationship. In the process, it has also cultivated a collaboration between the faculty of the medical campus and the Morningside campus, and it has afforded pre-medical students a writing and reading-intensive seminar on the interdisciplinary topic.
Tavis Apramian and Chris Salib were paired for the practicum requirement for the Masters program—an independent study where students have the opportunity to choose between a clinical placement, a program development, a thesis, or a writing project. After working with Charon, Apramian and Salib realized they wanted to introduce premed students to the interdisciplinary perspective.
“The seminar is an opportunity for budding doctors to hone speaking, listening, and communication skills for their futures,” Apramian said.
Fifteen premed students, including three post-baccalaureate students, were asked to write a short response to the following prompt: write a 500-word essay about the Hudson River from the perspective of an elderly man or woman.
“We chose this prompt because we wanted to ensure that people can take a leap of faith in embodying another person. Writing from another’s perspective helps you associate with people you are working with,” Salib said.
The seminar intended to give premed students an education aside from the medical school requirements and a unique set of communication skills that can be applied to the practice of medicine. “We get to discuss things and explore things that medical schools don’t have the chance to teach,” Salib said.
“We are trying to create a space to integrate literature and medicine and encourage students to use writing and reflection as means to make sense of experiences,” he added.
Students prepare for discussion by completing assignments, such as watching an episode of the TV show “House” to think about how medicine is portrayed in the media. Students respond to specific prompts, read poems and prose, and discuss topics including how doctors relate to the other and how the doctor-patient relationship affects the treatment of the patient.
While the handful of students in the seminar have a strong interest in pursuing careers in the medical profession, some students have additional goals.
“I want to improve my language skills and to prepare for my verbal reasoning on the Medical College Aptitude Test. Through most of my academic career, English and writing classes have been a challenging topic for me—however, the ability to effectively communicate your ideas and thoughts to your patients or colleagues is crucial for a career in medicine,” Vincent Nguyen, GS, said.
“The seminar is an interesting place to begin conceptualizing what medicine is like, what that exchange entails, and pushing the students to engage with their possible futures,” Apramian added. “It is an exercise in imagination.”
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