Faculty Development

The Narrative Perspective and Reflective Writing: An Elective in Medical Humanities 2017/18

[E]verybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.
-Neil Gaiman

Alice Fornari, EdD, RDN, Course Director, afornari@northwell.edu

Overall Goal of the Experience:

The goal of this elective is to help students develop their capacities for continuous reflection and improvement by creating a community of practice.  Students will honor patients' stories by seeking to understand their perspectives about the impact of illness on their lives.  They will practice effective communication skills by building and sharing coherent narratives.  By working to locate themselves within their own stories and those of others, students will learn to more effectively process their clinical experiences and practice reflections as a skill for meaning-making and self-understanding throughout their careers.  For more information about the importance of including Narrative Medicine as part of the training for medical professionals, please see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3992707/pdf/nihms-572162.pdf

Objectives

Students will:

1. Synthesize clinical experiences into coherent narratives by creating written reflections
2. Cultivate compassion, empathy, and respect for diverse social and cultural perspectives while sharing patient stories
3. Collaborate and communicate effectively as part of a supportive peer group
4. Practice written reflection as sustainable method to promote personal and professional development and to prevent burnout

Logistics

1. Emails of students and faculty are also posted on the BB course site.
2. The excel calendar of session dates, in which sessions are offered, is posted with assigned faculty on BB.
3. 2017-18 Syllabus is posted on Blackboard (BB) with the readings.
4. The student must use the current syllabus to prepare for a session. 
5. Weekly assigned reading (s) and prompt are included in the syllabus in addition as an assignment in BB.
6. All narratives prepared for a session should be posted to BB as a journal entry and printed to share in the session with peers and faculty facilitators.
7. Attendance will be recorded by the student on 145 using the duty hours feature. Record date of attendance at a session. This will be the only record of participation.

A Few Words on Creating a Safe Space

This SOM elective course focuses on introspection. The work you share will be personal, for you and will be the subject of your study during our time together. Vulnerability is a vital part of the process, because through it we are able to identify with the universal human qualities in one another's experiences. But it takes tremendous courage to be vulnerable in front of others, especially your peers. You are strong, intelligent people who will not always agree with one another. As long as you commit to responding with respect and compassion – especially when you disagree – then our classroom will be a safe space for everyone to share.

Conditions for Success

This course is more likely to succeed if we adhere to the tenets below.

1. Write something from the heart each week. It's okay if you stray from the assigned prompt. Bring a written copy of the writing to class.
2. Set aside your computers and phones for the duration of class each week and commit to being fully present with one another.
3. Be respectful, non-judgmental and remain open minded. No interrupting or disparaging the contributions of others.
4. Confidentiality is important – everything said in the room stays in the room.
5. There is no right or wrong answers.
6. We are all peers, undertaking this journey together.
7. We all have something to teach one another.