Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List

Editor’s note: “Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List” is a monthly roundup where we share some of the most compelling health care narratives driving the news and conversation in recent weeks.

Why Doctors Need The Humanities

Danielle Ofri, a physician at Bellevue Hospital and associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine, has made a name for herself as a doctor who writes—and writes well—with four books published and a slew of narrative medicine publications in the lay press and scholarly outlets. Yet when she was starting out as an attending physician at a teaching hospital in New York, her early attempts to infuse the education of medical students with a touch of the humanities—through the hurried discussion of an essay or poem, for example—felt “supremely awkward.”

Ofri writes about the importance of, and pushback against, introducing the humanities into physician training in an essay for PLOS Medicine, “Adding Spice to the Slog: Humanities in Medical Training.” What medical students remember most about their education are the patient stories, Ofri notes. “If medical humanities can help us connect more with those stories, then let’s call in the humanities cavalry, even if there will never be a clinical trial to demonstrate clear and compelling benefit,” she writes. “Lots of what we measure in medicine is unimportant, and lots of what is important is unmeasurable.”

Gaming For Health

After suffering a severe concussion in 2009, game designer Jane McGonigal was plagued by physical discomfort and eventually became depressed and anxious. For the first time in her life, she was plagued with suicidal thoughts. Rather than succumb to those feelings, McGonigal used her experience to create a video game called “Jane the Concussion Slayer,” designed to aid in her recovery.

The idea has since evolved into SuperBetter, a game that helps people achieve personal growth and tackle real-life challenges. A randomized controlled study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania found that playing SuperBetter for 30 days significantly reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, and increased optimism, social support, and player’s belief in their own ability to succeed and achieve their goals. McGonigle discusses the game—and a new book about the game—in an interview with Longreads.

Black And Depressed

Tyrese Coleman did not talk about her post-partum depression and anxiety. Until recently, she didn’t even affix those titles to it. After her twin sons were born premature and fighting for their lives, Coleman simply “got by.” In an essay for Buzzfeed, called “What It’s Like Having PPD As A Black Woman,” Coleman writes about coming to terms with her mental health challenges, a process that she admits is still a work in progress.

“I did not receive treatment,” she writes. “Until I spoke to my mother, my undiagnosed depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress—whatever I can call it now—didn’t feel real to me. I’d done what people in my community say to do in difficult times: I strapped my back straight, put on my strong-black-woman face, relied on my family and friends, and prayed.”

White Coats No More?

Philip Lederer recalls the day he began medical school and received his first “white coat,” denoting his new status as a physician-in-training, and later when he traded in his short white coat for the longer one worn during residency. Now, as an infectious disease fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Lederer has new white coats — which he’s never worn. Given the presence of bacteria on white coats, and the mere possibility that these bacteria could be passed along to patients, Lederer says it’s time that doctors hang up their white coats for good.

“The culture of medicine is very powerful, and old habits, like white coats, are hard to break,” he writes in a piece for The Conversation. “But doctors are still doctors whether they wear a coat or not. And even if white coats inspire trust in some patients, whatever theoretical benefits the coats may have aren’t worth the downsides. There is no harm in avoiding white coats, but there could be danger in wearing one.”

Why Doctors Write

Ken Browne Productions is producing a documentary feature film about the intersection of medicine and literature. “Why Doctors Write: Finding Humanity in Medicine,” supported by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, will examine how creative writing and reflective reading are transforming doctors, medical students, and other health care workers.

“The film will make a case that this growing movement of writing by doctors, and use of literature in hospitals and medical schools, is renewing humanism in medicine — at a time when technology, managed care, and other constraints encroach upon the doctor-patient connection,” the website states. A trailer is available on the site.

In Case You Missed It

This month’s Narrative Matters section featured health care poems by Joy Jacobson, Deborah Fries, and Lisa Annelouise Rentz. We also featured additional poetry on Health Affairs Blog throughout October.

from Health Affairs Blog http://ift.tt/1MxrXu1