From Clinic to the Classroom: Teaching about Narrative Medicine and Health Inequity at Rhodes College

After a hiatus during medical training (med school, residency, first year fellowship), I am excited to be back in the classroom teaching about narrative medicine and health inequity at Rhodes College this semester! The course is designed for post-baccalaureate Health Equity students and advanced undergraduate students, and I will share my teaching materials here, just like old times. I look forward to teaching alongside my clinical duties as a combined fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology and hospice and palliative medicine.

HLEQ 430 introduces the field of Narrative Medicine and the role of narrative in raising awareness of health inequity. Illness narratives illuminate patient experiences with social determinants of health, and clinician narratives provide insight into healthcare perspectives on inequity. Through a close study of medical narratives, we will delve into systems of health inequality, implicit bias, systemic racism and sexism, narrative ethics, death and dying, mental illness, disability, and more. Students will have the opportunity to engage with narrative medicine theory and discourse as well as to create their own forms of narrative. This course is designed for individuals interested in health equity, medicine, nursing, public health, medical anthropology, clinical psychology, other health-related fields to gain an interdisciplinary understanding and humanistic perspective of medicine through the lens of narrative.

Course requirements will include weekly readings and reflections, class participation, a mid-term narrative analysis paper, and a final project of narrative creation.

Image courtesy of Tara Winstead.