Press release from Lenoir-Rhyne University:
On Friday-Saturday, Oct. 18 and 19, healthcare practitioners in surgery, general practice, nursing, counseling, and public health will have the opportunity to learn how story can impact their work and support their emotional well-being. The event, which is being organized by MAHEC and Lenoir-Rhyne University, will be made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council.
On October 18 at 7 p.m., MAHEC will host physician and literary scholar Dr. Rita Charon. Charon is the founder of the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University in New York and also the 2019 Jefferson Scholar of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Narrative Healthcare is a composite of Narrative Medicine, Medical Humanities, Expressive Writing, and Poetic Medicine shaped to serve physicians, students, nurses, social workers, and all who encounter healthcare work. Lenoir-Rhyne University offers a Graduate Certificate in Narrative Healthcare at its Asheville location.
On October 19, a panel of practitioners from across all fields of healthcare will tell their experiences of using story in their work. All panelists were trained through Lenoir-Rhyne’s Narrative Healthcare program. Thoracic surgeon and author Daniel J. Waters launched his own program at the Mason Clinic in Mason City, Iowa. According to Waters, he started the program after he discovered the benefits of incorporating Narrative Practice into saving lives.
Break-out sessions based on the area of practice will follow the panel. Each session will present the evidence-based practices Charon formulated with her team at Columbia University. These practices prepare clinicians to listen, attend to, interpret, metabolize, and be moved by stories. In addition to being proven to improve outcomes, narrative practice also reduces burn-out and moral injury.
MAHEC CEO Dr. Jeff Heck will present a lunch keynote, sharing how he includes story both in his medical practice and medical education.
Website is www.narrativehealthcare.net. Organizer is Laura Hope-Gill, MFA, Director of the Narrative Healthcare and Master of Arts in Writing programs at Lenoir-Rhyne University: laura.hopegill@lr.edu.
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