Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the
Heart of Health Care® is a program of the Maine Humanities Council
in collaboration with the humanities councils ofConnecticut :::
Illinois :::
Maryland :::
Massachusetts :::
Montana :::
Nebraska :::
New Hampshire :::
New Jersey :::
North Carolina :::
Rhode Island :::
South Carolina :::
Utah :::
Vermont :::
Editor-in-Chief
Lizz Sinclair
with
Victoria Bonebakker
syn·apse
(si'-naps', si-naps') noun
A specialized junction where transmission of information takes place between a nerve fibre and another nerve cell, or between a nerve fibre and a muscle or gland cell.
[New Latin synapsis, from Greek, juncture, from synaptein to fasten together, from syn- + haptein to fasten]
Submission
Info
We invite your thoughts, questions, ideas and column submissions!
Deadline
for submissions
for the next
issue of Synapse:
October 31, 2005
The Unveiling of the New Literature & Medicine Annotated Bibliography, the New Evaluations, Art, and Other Noteworthy News …
::: special announcement ::: read more
Looking for good summer reading? Searching for something new for your Lit & Med group? Look no further than the new on-line version of the Literature & Medicine program’s Annotated Bibliography!
This issue has a particular focus on nurses and nursing practice in relation to Literature & Medicine.
Susan Anderson & Jenny Edwards
feature article ::: read more
Jenny Edwards, Program Officer for the North Carolina Humanities Council, and Susan Anderson, RN and liaison for Wesley Long Community Hospital, share their thoughts on how the Literature & Medicine program can help nurses bridge the gap between the holistic approach to medicine they strive for professionally and the realities of their professional lives. As one nurse told them,
[The Literature & Medicine program is] a safe place to share experiences and emotions that you don’t have time for on the floor. And just because you don’t have time for them, doesn’t mean you don’t experience them on some level. The stories helped me bring forward past experiences that I had left behind and not dealt with or had time to reflect on.
Elizabeth Berg
Eye Witness
::: reflections
from seminar participants ::: read more
After the Literature & Medicine group at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois read the novel, Range of Motion, facilitator Amy Levin gathered questions from participants and sent them to author (and former nurse) Elizabeth Berg. Amy, the group and Ms. Berg have agreed to share their correspondence with us.
"I do miss nursing. It’s such an important job and it’s so rewarding. The best parts were the interactions with nurses and patients, the care and concern you saw daily. I think nurses and teachers are the best people in the world."
Cortney Davis
::: authors speak about their work ::: read more
"What I’m suggesting is that if I, as a caregiver, have to be with someone who’s dying, then I want my patient to know that I am there with openness and joy and privilege at sharing death’s moment; that I won’t run from the room and hide. There’s a fine line between saying something that’s a little risky and shying away and only saying what’s safe. I prefer to be open and honest about revealing the risky parts, too."
An interview with nurse, poet, and author Cortney Davis, by Jolynn Tumolo
Must Reads
::: facilitators
review readings you don’t want to miss! ::: read more
Katharine Dunn’s novel, Geek Love, immerses readers in the disturbing world of the Binewskis, a family of children conceived by parents who intentionally used drugs, insecticides, and radioisotopes to create their own carnival freak show. Though perhaps not a book for new groups, Maine facilitator Marli Weiner suggests that this imaginative, well written novel raises many relevant issues for those in health care, including what is considered normal, the intricacies of family power dynamics, how to reconcile different value systems, genetic engineering, and the nature of love.
National Connections
::: Literature
& Medicine news from humanities councils across the country :::
read more
We need your feedback!
Synapse is now in its second year — a good time to assess how we are doing!
Budgets are tight, so we need to know if this is a resource we should continue to offer.
- Do you find Synapse useful? Should we continue to publish this? Why?
- What do you like about it, and why?
- Which sections do you read? Are there any articles that have stood out for you?
- What would you like to see in future editions?
- If you are in a Literature & Medicine program, would you be interested in contributing to a column?
Please send your feedback to Synapse editor Lizz Sinclair
Subscribe to Synapse, the e-magazine of Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care®. Synapse provides a forum for our Literature & Medicine community to share information, stories, questions, ideas, and suggestions. Synapse is published by the Maine Humanities Council twice a year through the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book. The National Endowment for the Humanities has provided major funding for Literature & Medicine. To read previous issues of Synapse, please see the archives.
Literature & Medicine has received major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.