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About the Program
Health care and the illness experience are marked by uneasy and costly divides: between those in need who can access care and those who cannot, between health care professionals and patients, and between and among health care professionals themselves. Narrative medicine is an interdisciplinary field that challenges those divisions and seeks to bridge those divides. It addresses the need of patients and caregivers to voice their experience, to be heard and to be valued, and it acknowledges the power of narrative to change the way care is given and received.
The care of the sick unfolds in stories. The effective practice of healthcare requires the ability to recognize, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others. Medicine practiced with narrative competence is a model for humane and effective medical practice. Although medical and nursing schools do their best to train students in communication skills and to teach them about patient experience, the technical imperatives of training and the fierce demands of on-site healthcare delivery override the human and personal aspects of care. Patients and their families are not the only losers in this dehumanized system: doctors, nurses, social workers, and other caregivers and advocates suffer in today's climate of fragmentation, bureaucracy, and loss of autonomy.
The study of narrative medicine is profoundly multidisciplinary. The curriculum for the master's program in Narrative Medicine includes core courses in narrative understanding, the illness experience, the tools of close reading and writing; focused courses on narrative in fields like genetics, social justice advocacy, and palliative care; electives in a discipline of the student's choosing; and field work.
Program Objectives
The Narrative Medicine master's program seeks to strengthen the overarching goals of medicine, public health, and social justice, as well as the intimate, interpersonal experiences of the clinical encounter. The master's program aims to fulfill these objectives by educating a leadership corps of health professionals and scholars from the humanities and social sciences who will imbue patient care and professional education with the skills and values of narrative understanding.