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Writing Center takes humanity discussion to
community
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by Tom Smith, Ph.D.
CAE/Writing Center
“The poem is strong medicine,” writes poet Veneta Masson in her
collection of poetry titled “Clinician’s Guide to the Soul: Poems on
Nursing, Medicine, Illness and Life.” Her words argue for the
importance writing can play in health care, an argument made by medical
humanists and a health care movement called “narrative medicine.”
In early September, Masson will come to Charleston to participate in a
two-day program designed by MUSC Writing Center faculty to foster new
conversations about the humanistic elements of health care. The
interactive program aims to stimulate dialogue about the value of the
humanities in patient and caregiver relationships and to engage the
community in an ongoing effort to share stories of illness and healing.
As a nurse and poet, Masson is regularly invited to participate in
similar programs around the country. Asked why she values the use of
the humanities in health care, Masson replied, “Our full humanity often
remains untouched by what science and technology can offer. Sometimes
they can cure, but they do not heal.”
She also sees that health care is a field already full of the stories
that we call the humanities in any other situation. “Much of what we do
as clinicians and caregivers is based on story. The story our patients
tell us about their symptoms, the story the patient’s body tells, the
story we call the patient’s chart and the stories we clinicians tell
each other to sustain us.”
She uses her own reading and writing of stories and poetry in her work
with caregivers to add breadth and depth to their understanding of
sickness, suffering, recovery, birth and death. “I’m also drawn to
poems and stories that help me endure and understand my own personal
and family crises.”
Observing the trend in health care toward greater use of the humanities
to educate providers, Masson points out that hospitals are full of
stories and poetry. She recalled what the literary critic Anatole
Broyard observed when he was dying of prostate cancer: “A hospital is
full of wonderful and terrible stories…and if I were a doctor (or
nurse), I would read them as one reads good fiction and let them
educate me.”
During her visit, she and Writing Center faculty have planned two
events to engage the Charleston and MUSC communities in a discussion of
the importance of creativity in illness and healing, as well as the
value of story and poetry for health care providers and caregivers. The
following two, free programs, which are open to the public, have been
planned:
- Sept. 2, 6 - 7:30
p.m.: “Creative Responses to Illness and Healing,” Charleston County
Public Library Auditorium, 68 Calhoun St., featuring the importance of
storytelling in health care, and how stories of both patients and
caregivers improve patient-caregiver relationships and foster healing.
- Sept. 3, Noon - 2
p.m.: “The Poetry of Caretaking,” 2W Amphitheater, University Hospital,
a discussion about the value of humanities to professional health care
workers and other caregivers.
Writing Center
faculty, who also teach interprofessional humanities courses and
conduct workshops on narrative medicine at MUSC, view this project as a
way to reach out to a community that is longing for better health care.
To see an online collection of writings, visit http://academicdepartments.musc.edu/writingcenter/.
Friday, Jan. 15, 2010
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