Presented at the 2014 Minnesota Writing and English (MnWE) Conference.

1. Medical Humanities, Narratives,
and Composition
By Jason Tham
St. Cloud State University
2014 Annual Minnesota Writing & English (MnWE) Conference

3. 
 An emerging,
interdisciplinary field:
 Humanities
 Arts
 Social Sciences
 Provide insights
 Guide future medical
education
Medical Humanities

4. 
 Emerging concept to address the
need of patients and caregivers…
 To voice their experience
 To be heard
 To be valued
 Challenges the uneasy and costly
divisions in healthcare and
professional communication, and
seeks to bridge those divisions
Narrative Medicine

5. 

6. 
 Using both sides of our brains
 Medicine practiced with narrative competence
 Humane and effective medical practices
 The power of storytelling
Crossing Boundaries

7. 
There isn’t anyone
you couldn’t learn
to love…
… once you have
heard their stories.
“

8. 
 Intimate, interpersonal process of writing narratives
 Traumatic experiences
 Writing for expressions, revelations, reflections
Unfolding Stories

9. 
 To write a narrative about
experiences with joy and pain
 Encounters essential to
human being
 Purpose:
To recognize, absorb, interpret, and
act upon the plight of others and
one’s self.
The Assignment

10. 
 Annual Survive & Thrive Conference
 Students to participate in conference activities,
present their work, and experience how it’s like to be
a part of scholarly conversations
Collaboration
survivethrive.net

11. 
 P1: Explorations/Discussions in small groups
 P2: Freewriting, outlining, messing around
 P3: Generating narratives
 P4: Peer reviews & feedback
 P5: Presentations & responses
 P6: Reflections
Phases

12. 
Students’ Feedback

13. 
“I realized how much more you remember from experiences
when it is written on paper.”
“I got to relive one of my past memories, and I got to truly
appreciate the experience I had. I realized what a major impact
that experience had on my life.”
“I learned that I’m not the only one with daily struggles…”
“People can be emotionally healed through writing.”
“It helped me move on with my pain.”
“It made me look into my past and analyze my sad and happy
experiences, accepting them for what they are and move on.”
Students’ Feedback

14. 
 Stories connect – identification with others & self
 Instructor got to know more about students
 Cultural sensitivity
Lessons Learned

15. 
 Multimodal composition
 Rhetorical analysis of medical
documents/communications
 Public exercise: interviews, public writing, digital
narratives
Ideas

16. Medical
Humanities, Narratives, and
Composition
By Jason Tham
St. Cloud State University
2014 Annual Minnesota Writing & English (MnWE) Conference