The effective practice of healthcare requires the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. This ability, known as narrative competence, enables the physician to practice medicine with empathy, reflection, professionalism, and trustworthiness. Such a practice is called narrative medicine [1].
Narrative medicine can change the way we practice by focusing on the emotional integrity of a patient’s story and how we react as humane clinicians. Practicing narrative medicine enables providers to connect with their patients through illness and suffering, reflect upon their individual journeys through medicine, create dialogue and empower relationships with fellow healthcare colleagues, and promote public health advocacy in today’s society.
Literary AMWA is a gallery of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry writing from women physicians and physicians-in-training who hope to foster healing through storytelling.
[1] CHARON, R. (2001). NARRATIVE MEDICINE: A MODEL FOR EMPATHY, REFLECTION, PROFESSION, AND TRUST. JAMA , 1897-1902.
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Questions?
Email us at [email protected].
Reading List for the Aspiring Physician Writer
Narrative Medicine and Patient Confidentiality
“Writing About Patients: Is it Ethical?”
“Doctors Can Risk Lawsuits When Writing About Patients”
“Healing Narrative-Ethics and Writing About Patients”
“Should Doctors Write About Patients?”
“Physician/Writer: Dual and Dueling Responsibilities”
“When Doctors Pick up the Pen — Patient-Doctor Confidentiality Breaches in Publishing”
Woman-to-Woman Medicine – collecting memoirs from women medical students and their physician mentors. These stories should explore how mentorships have impacted women’s journeys through medicine.
Openhearted – University of Washington School of Medicine Medical Humanities and Narrative Medicine Interest Group showcases physician artwork and stories.
If you are interested in editing an issue of Literary AMWA,
please contact [email protected].
Rita Charon, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine; Executive Director, Program in Narrative Medicine, Columbia Univ. Medical Center
Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH
AMWA Executive Director
Linda Clever, MD
President, RENEW
Sarah Cutrona, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine, Univ. of Massachusetts
Gayatri Devi, MD, MS
Director, New York Memory and Healthy Aging Services; Clinical Associate Professor, NYU School of Medicine
Cristina Denise Go, JD
Literary AMWA Co-Lead, Litigation Associate
Anju Goel, MD, MPH
Literary AMWA Co-Lead, Public Health Consultant
Suzanne Leonard Harrison, MD, FAAFP, FAMWA
AMWA Past President, Professor of Family Medicine & Rural Health, Florida State University College of Medicine
Claudia Morrisey-Conlon, MD
U.S. Government Lead, USAID
Audrey Shafer, MD
Prof. of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Stanford Univ. SOM; Anesthesiologist, VA Palo Alto Health Care System; Director, Medicine and the Muse, Stanford Center of Bioethics
Renda Soylemez Weiner, MD, MPH
Director, Medical Optimization Program Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Hospital; Assoc. Prof. of Medicine, Boston Univ. School of Medicine
Cristina Denise Go, JD
Literary AMWA Co-Lead, Litigation Associate
Anju Goel, MD, MPH
Literary AMWA Co-Lead, Public Health Consultant
Preeti R. John, MD, MPH, FACS, CPE, HEC-C
Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Shae Sunders, MD
PGY-1, Family Medicine, Riverstone Health, Billings, MT
Mahima Sukumar, MS, MD Candidate (Class of 2023)
Frank H. Netter, MD School of Medicine
Tana Jean Welch, PhD, MFA
Associate Professor, Florida State University College of Medicine
Mary Pan Wierusz, MD
Family Medicine Physician, Kaiser Permanente Washington
