Literature & Medicine is a national award-winning reading and discussion program for health care professionals that, as one participant writes, “renews the heart and soul of health care.”
Book Clubs for Doctors Show Human Side of Medicine, [pdf] New York Times, by The Associated Press, published: March 11, 2010
Finding Empathy Through War Stories, [pdf] Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), by Lori Walsh, published: March 10, 2010.
There will be a special training Nov. 11, 2010 in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the conference, After Shock: Humanities Perspectives on Trauma.
Echoes of War: A Literature & Medicine Anthology includes poetry, essays and short stories that raise issues particularly relevant to health care professionals who care for veterans.
Imagine What It’s Like: A Literature and Medicine Anthology contains a wide range and large number of selections as well as useful commentary by the editor.
Hear talks and presentations by four leaders in the literature and medicine movement—Veneta Masson, Rita Charon, Judy Schaefer and Rafael Campo—given at Literature & Medicine’s first national conference, Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives in Literature and Medicine, held in November 2007.
Participants between 2005 and 2008 reported a great or medium increase in:
| empathy for patients | 79% |
| interpersonal skills | 64% |
| communication skills | 58% |
| job satisfaction | 62% |
| cultural awareness | 67% |
Read the report by program evaluator Dr. Bruce Clary of the Muskie School of Public Service.
Literature & Medicine has reached hundreds of providers, staff members, administrators and policy makers in health care facilities across the country, affecting the care of thousands of patients. The program started in Maine and now has involved a total of 25 states: AZ, CA, CT, DE, FL, HI, IL, MD, MA, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, RI, SC, SD, UT, VT, VA...and now Argentina!
