Tag: health equity

Accessible Narrative Medicine digital library

The Accessible Narrative Medicine digital library includes outlines for narrative medicine workshops, as well as “third objects” (poems, short essays, stories, images, items that can be the catalyst for conversation, reflection, and writing).

The goal of the site is to encourage the practice of narrative medicine in a wide range of community settings by making available detailed workshop outlines and resources that can be adapted by community workshop facilitators for their particular audience and setting. The developers of the site believe that “narrative medicine workshops should be led by trusted members of a community. In order to create an inclusive safe space, the content and leadership of a workshop should reflect the lived experience of those attending.” The outlines and materials focus on the health narratives of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and persons living with disability.

Registration is required to access the materials; once registered, site users can find workshops on core narrative medicine ideals, including attention, witness, and re-presentation. The library of third objects is searchable by topic and genre and includes not only written works but also images and art. The site has secured permission for use of narratives and many of the third objects include a bio for the author/artist, as well as a downloadable PDF of the object.

Autism and Neurodiversity: Different Does Not Mean Broken.

In this TedTalk, Adriana White (librarian, former special education teacher, and author) discusses the idea of neurodiversity. She was diagnosed with autism and anxiety in her 30’s and now advocates for inclusive schools and libraries. Her talk includes stories of her own autistic experiences, including how others labeled and made fun of because of the way her brain works. This video could be utilized as a tool to investigate how medical diagnoses elicit certain stereotypes and biases, such as being denoted as a “weird” kid. Additionally it could be used as a way to create dialogue surrounding the cultural and societal norms that surround the ideas of being “normal” as well as raising questions about accommodations in the built environment and the social model of disability.

Allyson Felix es campeona de la salud materna

Allyson Felix is an Olympic athlete who experienced complications with her pregnancy. She prepared for her pregnancy, exercising and trying to take every precaution. However, on a routine check-up, she was informed she had grave preeclampsia. Frightened and confused, Felix learned black women were at a higher risk for these complications. Felix received quality care and recovered from the disease, but wants all pregnant women to be aware of this risk. This is a quick read of about 10 minutes for intermediate level Spanish readers. The Q & A interview format help with comprehension. Readily usable in a medical Spanish class to expose students to health disparities (risk factors, access to care, outcomes) or in a mid-level composition, conversation or health narratives course.

Honoring and Witnessing Stories

This is an outline for a 90 minute undergraduate class on narrative medicine. It draws on readings by Arthur Frank and Rita Charon to talk about the importance of patient stories for patients to make sense of illness and for health care providers to provide care. It also addresses the importance of witnessing stories as a means of addressing power inequalities and health disparities. In addition to excerpts from classic works by Frank and Charon, the class session incorporates essays by a medical student (Ali) and a practicing physician (McMullen) on the significance of stories in their practice. The outline is from a practicum class, and so the class session includes narrative medicine practices of close reading and reflective writing, as well as class discussion of the assigned readings.

Reflective MedEd

The “About” section of this blog explains its purpose as follows: “Reflective MedEd is dedicated to reflective practice in medical education and care of the person. We publish contributions that offer insight and illumination into the experience of educating the next generation of physicians. We welcome the thoughts of educators, patients, and all who foster awareness of the human dimension of doctoring and develop advocates for the just and equitable treatment of all patients.” Especially welcome are submissions that address “social justice and a concern for marginalized and vulnerable populations, the role of faith in medical practice, and ethical standards of decision making.” Reflective MedEd is supported by the Ralph P. Leischner, Jr., MD, Department of Medical Education at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Blog posts include both personal narratives and reflective essays from a variety of experiences and perspectives. For example: “How COVID Impacted my First Patient and Patient Death Experience,” “What I have Learned About Trust from Black Women,” and “The Wolf: How skeptical should we be of our patients?”

Art + Medicine | Speaking of Race

This one hour PBS broadcast features voices of many physicians of color at the University of Minnesota. Each physician talks about instances of race impacting their practice as well as the care that patients of color receive. It begins discussion of why race is important to talk about in health care and ends on each provider’s favorite aspect of teaching and medicine.

Medicina narrativa

Overview of narrative medicine: characteristics of a narrative, benefits for health professionals, basis in biopsychosocial model of medical care. Useful introduction to a course in health narratives taught in Spanish; upper intermediate reading level, 4 pps

COVID-19 through the Eyes of a Black Medical Student

Shuaibu Ali is a medical student who reflects on how his experiences growing up in an urban environment increased his risk for various health conditions. He makes the case for the importance of personal stories from individuals from historically marginalized groups as a way of personalizing statistics on health disparities and exposing conditions that create them.

I have used this essay in an undergraduate narrative medicine practicum class to prompt discussion about the importance of hearing stories from marginalized groups and the power of story to mobilize social change.

On Witness and Respair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by a Pandemic

Ward describes losing her 33-year old husband in the early days of COVID when transmission wasn’t well understood and treatments were non-existent. The essay opens with a loving tribute to his individual attributes, a useful move to personalize the statistics on COVID deaths. She puts her loss in conversation with the plot of a novel she is writing about an enslaved woman who loses family and with protests in response to the murder of George Floyd.

The short essay is accompanied by a 14:27 minute audio reading.

This essay could be used in a course to prompt discussion about health disparities in COVID and the connection between those and a larger history of systemic racism. It also gives insight into grief and loss, both individual and communal, and the ways in which story is a way of processing and acting upon it.

Dancing With Broken Bones: Portraits of Death and Dying Among Inner City Poor

Author David Moller makes the case that the dying poor are doubly invisible, shunned for being poor in an affluent society that denies death. “This book is about providing a face and offering a voice to speak on their behalf.” It includes stories about homeless and poor individuals and their experiences with end-of-life care (or lack of care). It portrays both their social isolation and suffering and their resilience and humanity. The author retells individuals’ stories and these could be excerpted.