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Columbia University

Columbia University
Medical Center

School of Continuing Education

NEXT WORKSHOP: October 21-23, 2011 at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY

The effective care of the sick requires deep and singular knowledge of the patient, competence and commitment of the physician, and a sturdy bond of trust between the two. Despite the many sociocultural and professional factors that may divide doctors and patients and the impact of political and economic pressures on health care as a whole, effective medical practice needs to replace hurried and impersonal care with careful listening, empathic attention, and personal fidelity. Narrative medicine is one cost-effective and evidence-based method to equip health care professionals with the skills needed to respond to the challenge. By fortifying clinical practice with the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret, and be moved by stories of illness, narrative training enables practitioners to comprehend patients’ experiences and to understand what they themselves undergo as clinicians. Professionalism, cultural competence, bioethical competence, interpersonal communication skills, self-reflective practice, and ability to work with health care teams can be strengthened by increasing narrative competence.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES:
These intensive workshops, reserved for 40 participants, will offer rigorous skill-building in narrative competence. Participants will learn effective techniques for attentive listening, adopting others’ perspectives, accurate representation, and reflective reasoning. Plenary sessions will focus on reconceptualizing empathy, narrative ethics, bearing witness, and illness narratives.

Small group seminars will offer firsthand experience in close reading, reflective writing, and autobiographical exercises. Participants will receive a packet of readings prior to the conference that will include seminar articles in the field of narrative medicine by leading educators. The target audience is physicians and other health care professionals and scholars interested in Narrative Medicine.

Power remains in the basics of attentive listening, close reading and reflective writing. The Narrative Medicine Workshop offers an exceptional opportunity to learn and practice these tools with intensity, guidance and expertise. This is a unique setting that will engage you in a multidimensional learning process. During the workshops you will closely examine the interweave between illness, the personal lives of patients and the interplay of your role. Narrative medicine offers the opportunity for telling and witnessing that reveals the psychological, emotional, sociocultural and political context to expose the deepest roots of illness - this enables medicine with tools to heal if not cure.
---Katherine Ellington (Narrative Medicine Workshop, May 2006)

PARTICIPANTS WILL:

• develop the narrative competence to nourish empathic doctor-patient relationships
• learn narrative communication strategies for patient-centred and life-framed practice
• build habits of reflective practice that enhance professionalism and nurture clinical communities
• acquire pedagogic skills to teach methods of narrative medicine
• replace isolation with affiliation, cultivate enduring collegial alliances, and reveal meaning in clinical practice

Held at the Columbia University Medical Center campus, these weekends will provide opportunities for individual consultations with faculty, shared meals, informal social gatherings, and access to the cultural offerings of New York City.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY FACULTY:

Rita Charon, M.D., PhD. Professor of Clinical Medicine, author of Narrative Medicine: Honoring Stories of Illness.

Nellie Hermann, M.F.A.,Chief Writing Faculty, Program in Narrative Medicine, author of The Cure for Grief.

Marsha Hurst, Ph.D. Director of Strategic Initiatives, Master in Narrative Medicine, editor of Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write their Bodies.

Craig Irvine, Ph.D. Academic Director, Master in Narrative Medicine, author of The Other Side of Silence: Levinas, Medicine and Literature.

Maura Spiegel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, editor of The Grim Reader: Writings on Death, Dying, and Living On.

Patricia Stanley, M.A. Patient Advocate, author of The Patient’s Voice.

ACCREDITATION:

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

DESIGNATION:

The College of Physicians and Surgeons designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 14.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

REGISTRATION:
Tuition (includes syllabus, meals, and literary readings) is $750 for income over $100,000 and $650 for income under $100,000.

LOCATION:
Columbia University Medical Center
Hammer Health Sciences Building
701 W. 168th Street
New York, NY 10032

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: sma67@columbia.edu

October 21-23, 2011

FRIDAY

2:00    Registration

2:15    Welcome,Craig Irvine, Ph.D.

2:30     Narrative Medicine: Methods for Improving Clinical Effectiveness, Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D.

3:45     Narrative Medicine: The Voice of the Patient, Patricia Stanley, M.A.

4:15      Participant Introductions

5:00      Small Group Seminars: Clinical Cases from Narrative Medicine

6:00      Adjournment

6:30      Cocktail Reception

SATURDAY

8:30      Continental Breakfast

9:00      Reconceptualizing Empathy, Maura Spiegel, Ph.D.

10:15    Refreshment Break

10:30    Small Group Seminars: Close Reading: Training for Attentive Listening

12:00    Adjournment

12:30    Lunch

2:00      Narrative Ethics: New Clinical Approaches, Craig Irvine, Ph.D.

3:15       Refreshment Break

3:30       Small Group Seminars:

              Narrative Writing From Practice:

              Enlarging The Clinical Fund Of Knowledge Through Representation

5:00      Adjournment

SUNDAY

8:30      Continental Breakfast

9:00       Writing in the Clinical Context and Beyond, Nellie Hermann, M.F.A.

10:15    Refreshment Break

10:30    Small Group Seminars: Narrative Interviewing: How to Elicit the Full Stories of Illness

12:00    Adjournment

12:30    Lunch

1:30      Actionable narratives: From the clinical to the political, Marsha Hurst, Ph.D.

2:45      Refreshment Break

3:00      Small Group Seminars: Illness Narratives: The Skills of Bearing Witness to the Suffering of Others

4:30      Adjournment