Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine
by Annie Medeiros ::: bio
One of the first things you noticed when you walked into the former armory—the central gathering place at the Maine Humanities Council’s November 9-10 conference for health care professionals—was a large mobile of 1,001 hand-folded, multi-colored peace cranes. On each table, instead of Prozac pens and Diflucan mints, there were Gerber daisies and origami sculptures. Small white lights lit the rafters and shone off the hardwood floors, creating a warm and inviting ambiance. That sense of welcome and comfort permeated the two-day conference.
The conference, a project of Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health CareŽ, was designed to survey the wide range of innovative programs, including Literature & Medicine, that support health care professionals through the use of literature and writing. The particular focus was on the literature and medicine movement’s ability to renew and energize health care professionals’ connection to their work. Literature and medicine initiatives offer participants the opportunity to reflect upon and process the frustrations, discomfort, pain and grief that are an inevitable part of their work. Burnout is a very significant issue in all areas of health care, and the conference helped to spread the message that there are relatively simple and inexpensive ways to care for the caregiver, thus ensuring their ability to give better care to their patients.
“Thanks for a life-altering experience.”
“The conference allowed me to learn from both presenters and attendees how to improve my delivery of patient-centered care, how to take my own responses to difficult situations into account in my care-giving, and new ways to improve my skills in the realms of communication and professionalism.”
“This was a wonderful discussion of issues we deal with in our professions, and how to work through our own burn out, fatigue, fear and continue to provide care to others.”
“The use of parallel records/having the patient hold that binder was an ‘aha moment’ for me. Thank you Rita Charon. Campo’s poetry-perfect in every way as a tool for patient and caregiver expression.”
“How important it is for people to have a place to talk about their experience of their work! How much safer literature makes it to have these conversations!”
Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine was held in Manchester, New Hampshire and attracted about 200 registrants from 28 states, including Hawaii, California and Washington, as well as New England. It brought together leaders of health care programs from across the country to broaden and deepen the conversation about the benefits of bringing health care and the humanities together. It also gave health care professionals the tools they need to start programs in their own institutions, and, not incidentally, to lay the foundation for a community of caregivers—a range of clinicians such as physicians, nurses, PAs, chaplains, social workers, and doulas, and academics from medicine, public health and the humanities—who are interested in literature and medicine in practice.
The work of the three keynote speakers, Rita Charon, Rafael Campo and Anne Fadiman, all well known and highly respected in the literature and medicine field examines how health care professionals cope with and reflect on the nature of their work, and addresses the challenges of communicating clearly, skillfully and compassionately with patients and colleagues from a variety of backgrounds. Directly or indirectly, it forms the basis for much of the activity and interest in the growing field of literature and medicine.
Rita Charon, MD, PhD, the founder of the emerging field of Narrative Medicine, guides both aspiring and practicing health care professionals in writing narratives about their experiences from both their own points of view and the imagined perspectives of their patients. She talked about how such parallel charts both heighten the attention of the caregiver, and create an affiliation with the patient. Rafael Campo, MD, MFA, a practicing physician and teacher at Harvard Medical School, and award-winning poet, read from his work, extending the emphasis on the importance of stories. Anne Fadiman, author of the iconic book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, spoke of the lessons the story suggests for cross-cultural work.
These themes were further emphasized through workshops on topics that ranged from spiritual grounding in the workplace, the art of facilitation, the potential uses of creative writing by professionals silenced by privacy issues, and questions of balance and boundaries.
Most participants were unabashed in their praise for the conference, and felt affirmed for the work they are doing and equipped with new resources and contacts to help them continue it.
The Council thanks the conference sponsors: the Maine Medical Association, The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, The Bingham Program, Johnson & Johnson, and our Literature & Medicine partners: the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities, the Illinois Humanities Council, the Maryland Humanities Council, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the New Hampshire Humanities Council, and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health CareŽ has received major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about the conference, please visit our website or contact Lizz Sinclair, the Program Officer for Literature & Medicine at MHC.
Read Synapse interviews with conference presenters Rafael Campo, Rita Charon, Veneta Masson, and Judy Schaefer by clicking on their names.