Rita Charon

We had a visiting professor Rita Charon come talk about narrative medicine. I was thrilled because she is one of the leading experts on stories in medicine. She completed a PhD as an attending at Columbia and then applied her expertise in developing a curriculum on literature, humanities, and medical education. I was lucky enough to join her for a short story workshop which I absolutely loved. We read Colm Toibin's "One Minus One" and the discussion was fabulous, reminding me of my undergraduate creative writing courses. One of the problems with medical school is we become so immersed that we forget our passions of a previous life; I had so much fun discussing the core elements of writing - point of view, symbolism, theme, literary devices - that so many of us learned in undergraduate English classes and have forgotten since.

Dr. Charon also gave a lecture and grand rounds on narrative medicine. In one, she emphasized the importance of story; patients and their illnesses tell a story. Their lives are wholly affected by what is happening to them and we cannot take the science and disease out of the context of an experience. The history given is a narrative with a character and lilt that is often lost when transcribed into a medical record. Whether it ought to be this way, I don't know, but we must recognize that medicine begins with storytelling. She also talked about evidence that writing about experiences in a hospital, whether by a physician, medical student, or patient, enriches that person's livelihood. It was a thorough pleasure to have her speak to us.