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Patient Co-Participation in Narrative Medicine Curricula as a Means of Engaging Patients as Partners in Healthcare: A Pilot Study Involving Medical Students and Patients Living with HIV

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Abstract

This paper describes a pilot study of a new model for narrative medicine training, “community-based participatory narrative medicine” (CBPNM), which centers on shared narrative work between healthcare trainees and patients. Nine medical students and eight patients participated in one of two, five-week-long pilot workshop series. A case study of participants’ experiences of the workshop series identified three major themes: (1) the reciprocal and collaborative nature of participants’ relationships; (2) the interplay between self-reflection and receiving feedback from others; and (3) the clinical and pedagogical implications of the CBPNM model. Principles and proposed outcomes of the CBPNM model are presented.

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Notes

  1. Most narrative medicine workshops employ a two-part structure comprised of a close reading exercise followed by a reflective writing exercise. The workshop facilitator selects the text – typically a poem or a prose excerpt – and facilitates a close reading of the text with the group. The facilitator additionally generates a short writing prompt related to the text. Following discussion of the text, participants are asked to write to the prompt. They are then invited to share what they wrote and offer each other feedback.

  2. All names are pseudonyms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Mariam Davtyan, the MCA leadership and staff, and the faculty of the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia University for their support. The authors would also like to thank all of the students and patients who participated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital, 15 Parkman Street, WACC 812, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Jonathan C. Chou

  2. Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Ianthe R. M. Schepel

  3. Department of Health Systems Science, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Anne T. Vo

  4. Department of Clinical Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Suad Kapetanovic

  5. Department of Medical Education, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Pamela B. Schaff

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  1. Jonathan C. Chou
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  2. Ianthe R. M. Schepel
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Correspondence to Jonathan C. Chou.

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Ethical approval was granted according to institutional review board protocol 45 CFR 46.110, University of Southern California, reference #HS-15-00803.

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Chou, J.C., Schepel, I.R.M., Vo, A.T. et al. Patient Co-Participation in Narrative Medicine Curricula as a Means of Engaging Patients as Partners in Healthcare: A Pilot Study Involving Medical Students and Patients Living with HIV. J Med Humanit 42, 641–657 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-019-09604-7

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