WRIT92402 - Narrative Medicine: Reflecting on the Process

Course Description

Narrative medicine usually refers to an approach to medical practice that focuses on the stories of patients as a way to improve medical care. In narrative medicine courses, medical providers and other caregivers learn to listen, reflect on their practice, and begin or deepen their creative writing practice. This class is for physicians, patients, social workers, nurses, chaplains, and others who are interested in ways that illness unfolds in stories. We will read and discuss exemplary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by patients and healers, examining content, style, meaning, and moral concerns. Students will try out a variety of writing styles and methods of creating written work. The instructor is the widely-published author of The Adventures of Cancer Bitch, a chronicle of her breast cancer treatment, published by the University of Iowa Press, and has been a keynote and lecturer at Iowa’s The Examined Life Conference on medicine and the arts.