Documentary featuring book artist Martha A. Hall, Orr’s Island, Maine. Brief discussion to follow.

The power of narrative…to humanize, to heal, to transform healthcare and health policy. Health benefits of narrative for patients are well documented and both patients’ and caregivers’ (family and professional) narratives can inform public health and research policy agendas. In a rapidly changing, increasingly technologic healthcare environment, however, how can we, within health professions education, maintain the centrality of narrative for competent and compassionate relationship-centered healthcare? Interactive (guided) reflective writing and reading literature can deepen understanding of the patient’s experience of illness, cultivate and preserve empathy, and foster reflective capacity, ideally strengthening the physician-patient relationship. Join Dr. Hedy Wald as she discusses the role of narrative for optimizing patient care and caring and the use of interactive reflective writing-enhanced reflection to support healthy professional identity formation and resilience/wellbeing in health professions education and practice. Dr. Wald brings educational and experiential lenses with her medical education scholarship as well as the illness narrative turn of her life and will share excerpts of her published essays and poetry.

Reception and exhibition.