Tag: COVID

Un chispazo de conexión humana

Agus Morales describes his visit to Faiz, a man from Pakistan, in the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. He describes Faiz’s shock when he speaks to him in Urdu as he had not spoken his native language since he first arrived at the hospital. The story highlights human connections that can grow from shared language, both speaking and being understood in a medical setting. This is a part of a collection that includes visual as well as written narratives regarding experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Useful for medical Spanish classes, well-told story that will resonate with general composition students, good example of a health narrative for humanities-driven upper division courses. Intermediate level, 1-2 pages.

Together Well: Documenting COVID’s Impact through Storytelling

Together Well is an online collection of stories (some audio and written but most video) about experiences of COVID. This collaboration between the Relational Leadership Institute (www.relatelab.org) and the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative (nwnmcollaborative.org) was designed to “collectively make sense of the pandemic’s impact on all members of the community: nurses, social workers, patients, family members, doctors, caregivers, students, chaplains, scholars, educators, activists, and artists.” In addition, the stories were assembled in the hope that reflecting on pandemic experiences can provide a basis for change in healthcare and communities that “better center connection, relationships, and well-being.” Stories document not only hardship but also ways that the COVID crisis led teams, communities, and individuals to innovate, collaborate, and change in powerful ways that we may wish to continue as we move forward.

The 37 stories in the collection are listed on the webpage; each has a thumbnail and an image. There is also a video (the first entry in the collection) about the project. Stories are brief enough to show in a class or workshop. The videos are hosted on YouTube so it is possible to provide closed captioning and transcripts are also available.

Lost and Found Narrative Medicine workshop outline

This is an outline for a workshop I led for the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative Community of Practice, May 26, 2020. Although this workshop occurred on zoom during the pandemic, it could be modified to address other time periods or other kinds of shared experience of loss. At the time it was offered, we gave the workshop the following description:

This pandemic has produced so many losses—some devastating, others disruptive or disappointing. This workshop will provide a space to name our losses, both large and small, and also to name and articulate what we may be finding. In the spirit of narrative medicine, we will use reading, writing, and listening to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on our own and others’ stories of what we have lost and found.

The audience for the workshop included Health Care Professionals, Patients, Caregivers, Artists, Scholars, and Students (15 to 25 people) and no previous preparation was expected of them. The outline provides time-markers for a 90-minute session.

Former Anti-Vaccine Mom Explains How Movement Pulled Her In, And How She Left

This NPR interview discusses Lydia’s journey from being initially pro-vaccine to joining the anti-vaccination movement after a traumatic experience with her first child’s vaccinations. She describes how online forums fueled her fears, leading her to reject vaccines for her subsequent children. However, Lydia’s perspective shifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting her to research and ultimately decide to vaccinate her children. The story highlights the role of misinformation in the anti-vaccine movement, the challenges faced by healthcare professionals combating disinformation, and the impact of social media. Lydia’s experience also emphasizes the need for open dialogue, fact-based education, and addressing vaccine hesitancy. The interview concludes with Lydia expressing her newfound motivation to pursue nursing school to help educate new parents about vaccines.

Both audio and written transcript are available.

Lydia’s story would be relevant to health-related courses or discussions related to vaccination, healthcare decision-making, and the impact of misinformation.

Community Conversations – Epiphany’s Story

In this short video posted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, Epiphany Gold, shares her experience with depression. As the pandemic started, Epiphany struggled with her mental health due to the isolation, losing her mom, and failing her nursing exams, something that had been an anchor for her. Epiphany shares how she no longer felt like she could continue to go on, not even for her child which was the sign that she needed to go therapy. She reflects how she feels therapy saved her as well as her life. This video engages with the topic of what it means to be in relation to others, specifically your child, while struggling with mental health. This video could be used to explore ways in which systems, or the lack thereof, of social support aid in the general well being of people, especially in regard to mental health.

In need of a prayer

Physician’s story of visit to a suspected-COVID patient from early days of pandemic. Details the stress of not knowing how to protect herself, patients’ isolation from his family, lack of treatment options, frantic pace of ER when infections and frequent deaths taxed medical professionals’ emotional and physical stamina. Relates patients’ conditions to her own father. Vivid starting point to discuss burnout (contrast with simple exhaustion and overwork), remind all audiences of what early months of uncontrollable COVID were like as memories fade. Ends by evoking a Celine Dion/Andrea Bocelli song about prayer that could contribute to discussion of music in healing.

El miedo de engordar en cuarentena

This narrative is from a woman whose struggle with bulimia worsened during the Covid lockdowns. Maria describes the impact of the isolation and forced inactivity that came from lockdown, and the physical and mental damage she has suffered from her bulimia during the quarantine. Contextualizes her personal struggle in social and cultural frameworks of beauty and control, making this useful for advanced intermediate and above students – and educated lay adults – to discuss eating disorders.

Covered-19

Artist describes the work displayed on this page this way: “COVERED-19 | CONVITE-19 COVERED19 is a live painting series influenced by the experiences of quarantine. Participants are invited to send a full body photograph that represents their thoughts and feelings about the COVID19 pandemic. The photograph is used to inspire the artist, Ibraim Nascimento, to create an original painting through a live video with the participant. By creating a virtual space for discussion, COVERED 19 allows the individual to tell their story. This series explores the concept of the ‘new normal’ and the abnormal, changes in day-to-day behavior like wearing masks, and self-reflection about the future. What will be the ‘new normal’? Can we go back to our way of life post COVID-19?”

Paintings could be used to discuss visual narratives, who tells stories of illness for others and how, and how people make meaning of visual representations versus oral/written storytelling. This could be done in Spanish classes from lower intermediate up, or English classes in many disciplines: health studies, media, writing courses.

Unmasked: Illustrating Covid-19 in Okoboji

Emily Mendenhall wrote a book, “Unmasked: Covid, community, and the case of Okoboji” based on 87 interviews with people in her hometown of Lake Okoboji, Iowa in 2020. This graphic narrative, illustrated by another native of Lake Okoboji, condenses that scientific/cultural report into full-color panels of comic strip interspersed with description and analysis. Much more compelling for most undergrads than a chapter of the book would be, it focuses on “cultural squabbles and social complexities of the first pandemic year in …a tourist town in northwest Iowa.” Could also illustrate the work of a medical anthropologist within her own community rather than in an exotic location.

Did a famous doctor’s Covid shot make his cancer worse?

Beyond – and more important than – the medical details, this article raises questions about the power of individual stories, in this instance case studies, of what might be fluke happenings or might be patterns of rare but significant side effects of a vaccine. Deep reflection on what happened when the teller was not just a patient but a scientist, one of several authors on a peer-reviewed article reporting findings in a journal, and how his trajectory would have been lost in a randomized clinical trial but might be quite significant if put together with two or three others with similar progressions. Also significant that his radiologist and co-author was his brother; not everyone has such a keen listener to their health narrative, nor would most people be able to tell them in such detailed and credible ways.

Useful for discussions of scientific knowing vs storytelling in e.g. a rhetoric or composition class; science writing (author reflects at the end on her hesitation about writing the story at all, given potential misuses and misstatements of the facts she presents); power of stories; doctors as patients.