Effect and Evaluation of Narrative Medicine on Medical Students and Clinical Teachers in Clinical Setting

Background: Professor Charon first used the phrase “narrative medicine” in 2000 to refer to clinical practice fortified by narrative competence. Narrative medicine is medicine performed with narrative skill and offered as a model for humanism and effective medical practice. The narrative concept includes examining and understanding medical reasoning, clinical relationships, empathy, and medical ethics. In Taiwan, little is known about the impacts of narrative medicine on medical students and clinical teachers. Specifically, how narrative medicine plays a role in the cultivation of empathy and professionalism in medical students and clinical teachers deserves further investigations. This project aims to evaluate the outcomes of narrative medicine and its impacts on medical students and clinical teachers in clinical settings with focuses on the cultivation of empathy and professionalism. Aims of the project: 1. To retrospectively analyze the contents of narrative writing assignments submitted by medical students. 2. To evaluate the outcomes of a narrative medicine course by using a survey questionnaire for course feedback from medical students. 3. To prospectively investigate the role of narrative medicine plays in the cultivation of empathy in medical students. 4. To explore the viewpoints of medical students and clinical teachers with regard to teaching and learning of empathy and professionalism in narrative medicine. Subjects and methods: Subjects: The subjects will be medical students and clinical teachers involved in a narrative medicine course. Methods: 1. The protocol for narrative writing begins with a typical lecture explaining the theory and introducing the process. The medical students were free to express themselves in many ways of narrative writing, based on the clinical stories occurring during hospital rotation. It helps the medical students recognize, interpret, and be moved to action by the problems of others, enhancing the humanism sensitivity. 2. Narrative medicine workshop for clinical teachers 3. Narrative medicine small group discussion: 6-8 students with a clinical teacher: reading the narrative writing with feedback and refection during the 1 hr small group discussion. Survey by the REFLECT (Reflection Evaluation For Learners’ Enhanced Competencies Tool) Rubric 4. Anonymous questionnaire: for feedback and empathy survey 5. Professionalism lecture 6. Semi-structured interview, Moustakas’ transcendental phenomenology and analysis procedures The project will be conducted for 3 years. 1. In the first year: To retrospectively analyze the context of narrative medicine written by medical students and follow up the questionnaire response. 2. In the 2nd year: To prospectively determine the progress of empathy of medical students. 3. In the 3rd year: A purposive sample of 20 medical students and 10 clinical teachers will

Project ID:PF10406-3002
External Project ID:MOST104-2511-S182-009