Johanna Shapiro, PhD
When Dr. Nguyen approached me about his idea to introduce poetry at a Federally Qualified Health Center, I was excited for many reasons. First, it was a perfect opportunity to implement an applied humanities project – taking material out of the classroom and the research library into the community. As such, it is an important example of how to bring the humanities and medicine into more intimate, and therefore I think more meaningful, conversation.
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Literary journals are becoming more commonplace at medical universities. Often they begin life as an in-house production intended to encourage medical students to write creatively about their experiences. Over time, the journal may evolve into a more expansive production, seeking writers and artists from outside the university to send their work as well. Both kinds of journals, however, do seem to share in common the idea that important stories are not being heard. They come into being in order to give voice to those who have not been heard. This panel will hear from four editors at four different kinds of literary medical journals who will then engage the audience to answer some of the following questions.
Johanna Shapiro, PhD
Using Narrative to Enhance Learning in the Basic Sciences
To draw analogies between complex unfamiliar topics and simple known processes is a natural component of education. Science lecturers often open their talks with a comparison to a familiar process (the nervous system is like the telephone; the endocrine system is like the pony express). Our approach to the basic sciences builds upon this simple idea – we have developed narrative analogies for nearly the entire second year curriculum. We use stories, with characters and humor, to help learn and recall volumes of basic science information. By remembering one aspect of a character, we can predict the related physiology, so that the stories and science ‘make sense’.