STORY-TELLING IN MEDICINE AT USF

USF professors and doctors discuss the power of narrative medicine

Tampa, Fla. (Sept. 25, 2009) – The University of South Florida is known for its strong medical programs, housing the Moffitt Cancer Center, the Suncoast Alzheimer's & Gerontology Center and variety of other research and treatment centers. This month, the Humanities Institute is helping spotlight narrative medicine, an approach to medical education, practice, and research that focuses on the skills of listening, interpreting, recognizing, absorbing and relating to stories – skills derived from literary and communication studies.

Dr. Rita Charon of Columbia University pioneered narrative medicine in the late 90s when she realized how central literature and story-telling are to the practice of medicine. Treating and caring for patients goes beyond diagnosis and healing – it heavily involved listening, attending to and validating patient stories.

Patient stories come out as more than just words. Charon became aware of the use of gestures, images and even silences when illnesses – and the emotions associated with illness – were being described. Charon understood she was part-doctor, part-interpreter.

As she realized how important narratives were to her profession, Charon returned to school to take English and literature classes. She ended up with an English doctoral degree and a new way of viewing doctor-patient relationships. Learned narrative skills allowed her to understand images, metaphors and points of view. Listening to and interpreting patient stories were a natural extension of understanding how literature and stories are built, told and understood.

“If you take narrative out of medicine there would be very little left,” Charon has observed. “All of the features of what we call medical practice – temporality, singularity, intersubjectivity, causality, contingency, and ethicality – are bedrock narrative features. Narrative medicine has evolved as a means to honor the stories of illness, whether told by the patient, family member, doctor, or nurse. More sharply, it has become a way to probe the narrativity of disease, of health, of healing, and the relation between the sick person and the one who tries to help.”

Dr. Art Bochner, a USF Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Communication, collaborated earlier this year with a colleague at Ohio University on a special issue of The Journal of Applied Communication Research on “Health as Narrative.”Bochner refers to narrative medicine as vulnerable medicine.

“Narrative medicine is a vastly different kind of medicine than what most of us have experienced,” Bochner said. “In narrative medicine, doctors allow themselves to get in touch with the vulnerability so many sick patients feel instead of shying away from, or avoiding entirely, the delicate emotional textures on which doctor/patient relationships turn. They know the difference between managing a diagnostic protocol and getting to the heart of a patient’s suffering.

“Medical knowledge may be necessary but it is not sufficient in dealing with disease, and certainly not for exercising the caring function of medicine. Intellectualizations can’t calm anxiety. That’s the trouble with modern medicine – too much head, not enough heart.”

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, USF faculty and doctors will highlight narrative medicine and the power of story-telling during a panel discussion at the USF Tampa campus library.

“The Humanities Institute is excited to bring together such an interdisciplinary panel,” said Institute director Dr. Silvio Gaggi. “The power of narrative medicine involves a recognition of the fundamental importance of story-telling in all aspects of human life, including medicine.”

Four guests will be featured during the panel discussion. Bochner and Carolyn Ellis will join the panel from Communication, Dr. Jacqueline Hinckley will join the discussion from Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Dr. Lodovico Balducci will represent the Moffitt Cancer Center.

Bochner will begin the panel with an overview of the growing development of the study of narratives and health. He will outline the ways in which narrative inquiries form a bridge between the humanities and sciences, as well as the importance that narrative plays in the meanings that human beings attach to health and illness.

Both Ellis and Hinckley will discuss their experiences as caregivers. Ellis will read a personal paper about caring for an ill person. Hinckley, a stroke rehabilitation researcher and clinician, will talk about her experience with a family member who had a stroke.

Balducci will present his experiences with death and dying from the perspective of a physician. His discussion will also touch upon how patients choose courses of medical treatment during terminal illness.

“Overall, the panel will showcase different ways of using narrative to expose various experiences of health and illness,” Hinckley said.

This panel will be held in the Grace Allen Room at the USF Library, in Special Collections (fourth floor). A reception will begin at 3 p.m., with the discussion to follow at 3:30 p.m. This event is free and all members of the public are welcome. For more information, visit the Humanities Institute Web site (humanities-institute.usf.edu) or call the main office at 974-3657.

The Humanities Institute’s primary mission is to promote the presence of the humanities at USF. In addition to supporting humanities-focused research, the Institute hosts a variety of lectures and discussions to encourage intellectual exchange in the USF community.

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