Narrative Medicine: The Story, Health, & Healing Initiative
Narrative Medicine: The Story, Health, & Healing Initiative brings together faculty, students, health care professionals, scholars, writers, and artists at Wake Forest University and the broader community to critically examine, teach, and reflect on the principles and practice of Narrative Medicine, the international, clinical and academic movement that recognizes the vital role that story plays in health care.
Our mission is to create opportunities for faculty, providers, and students across health care and related professions to interact and to explore the integration of narrative into health education and practice through a series of core, cross-campus programs.
In addition to pooling academic and experiential knowledge from the undergraduate and medical campuses, the Story, Health, & Healing Initiative has worked with Reynolda House Museum of American Art, UNC School of the Arts, and Bookmarks, among others, and invites the collaboration of other community partners.
The Story, Health, & Healing Initiative’s Core Programs include:
Narrative Medicine Lunch & Learn
A monthly workshop – free and open to all WFU students, faculty, staff, and community members – that introduces participants to Narrative Medicine and its core principles of close reading and reflective writing.
Rounding With
A series of lectures and mini-symposia, free and open to the public, in which an invited guest working in the field of narrative medicine gives a public reading or academic talk and/or facilitates an interprofessional education (IPE) workshop.
Narrative Medicine as Performance
A series of workshops on the intersections between health care and the performing arts.
The Art of Attention
A workshop led by experts from Reynolda House Museum of American Art that explores the benefits of multiple modes of engagement and observation for clinical education through a series of guided exercises in response to works of art from the museum’s permanent collection.
Reading Groups
Groups are free and open to clinicians, faculty, students, and the public. Copies of the chosen book are provided in advance for a one-night discussion.
All programming is sponsored by the Wake Forest University Humanities Institute, made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and with support from an Engaged Humanities Grant received by the University from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Upcoming Events
Narrative Medicine Lunch & Learn
Fall 2023
In-Person Sessions
In-Person Sessions will take place from 12:00-1:00pm on the following Wednesdays (Wake Downtown, Room 1617):
September 13th
October 11th
November 8th
December 6th
Click here to register for one or all sessions
Online/Zoom Sesssions
Online/Zoom Sessions will take place from 12:00-1:00pm on the following Thursdays:
September 14th
October 12th
November 9th
December 7th
Click here to register for one or all sessions