Introduction:

Today’s class offers something different, a chance to explore the power of Narrative in medicine as members of our class present two short plays.

The plays are drawn from stories written by physicians and compiled into readers theater plays by Dr. Todd Savitt who teaches at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.  Dr. Savitt has pioneered a way for medical students to present and explore reflections on the practice of medicine through his readers theater program. Today, members of our class will utilize Dr. Savitt’s scripts to perform two stories from his book,Medical Readers' Theater: A Guide and Scripts.  The first stroy written by Richard Selzer is called Follow your Heart and the second by William Carlos Williams is called A Face of Stone. We meet in Lecture Hall 6 at 1:00 PM.

Objectives: at the end of this class you should be able to

1. discuss the impact of narrative on the formation of physicians
2. be able to explain current efforts to expand the relationship between medicine and humanities

Preparation:

1. Come to the presentation
2. Bring an open mind
3. Sign in and remain for the whole program to receive full credit for the week.
4. Suggestions for Written Assignment: For this weeks class you might offer a review of one of the articles or even a review of one of the plays.

Study Questions:

1. Why study narrative?
2. How does narrative add to the traditional clinical focus of a patient interview.