Course Descriptions

Patient Stories/Doctor Stories:
Understanding the doctor-patient relationship and the
patient's experience of illness through literature

Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D., Lloyd Rucker, M.D. 2001 - current

DESCRIPTION: Patient Stories/Doctor Stories is a twelve session first year medical student "selective" (ie., it is chosen from a "smorgasbord" of courses, of which completion of one is required by the end of the first year). The class discusses brief fictional and first person narrative readings provided by the course faculty (see below). Students are required to complete and share a creative project using either literature, visual arts, or performing arts, that reflects on an aspect of their medical training or on issues of health and illness. Course is not graded. Credit is given for attendance, participation, and completion of the project.

OBJECTIVES:

To stimulate empathy for and understanding of the condition of patients confronted with serious illness
To develop insights into the doctor-patient relationship
To learn skills of close textual reading and interpretation as they apply to the "voice" of patient and physician
To provide in-depth supplemental readings to the Patient-Doctor course
To explore creative writing as a method for reflecting on and integrating challenging life experiences

TOPICS AND READINGS:

Week 1: Becoming a Doctor
"Technology and Medicine" Rafael Campo
Shamanic Journey" Kristin Emmott

Week 2: Learning to Listen
"When You Come into My Room" Stephen Schmidt
"A Good Story" Michael Crichton (roleplay)

Week 3: Learning to Listen
"Learning to Listen" David Frankel
"The Patient Examines the Doctor" Anatole Broyard
"Fetishes" Richard Selzer

Week 4: The Difficult Physician-Patient Relationship
"Second Thoughts" Tillman Farley
"Doc in a Box" Robert Burton (roleplay)

Week 5: More Difficult Patients
"The Conversion" Howard Stein
"Free Health Care" Mark Ziloski
"For Saint Peter" UA Fanthorpe
"Case History" Dannie Abse
"Jamal" Rafael Campo
"F.P." Rafael Campo
"Maria" Rafael Campo
"Junkie on the Phone" Kristin Emmott
"Old Lady Patient" Cortney Davis
"God and the Telephone" Veneta Masson
"The Knitted Glove" Jack Coulehan

Week 6: Cancer Journeys
"Working through Images" Spencer Nadler (guest appearance by author)
"A Life-Saving Enterprise" Vincent Hanlon
"Losses" Layle Silbert
"Chemotherapy" Aimee Grunberger
"A Story about the Body" Robert Hass
"Once in Ohio" Arthur Smith
"The Waiting Room" Corie Herman
"Spence + Lila" Bobbie Ann Mason

Week 7: Anatomy of Anatomy (guest appearance by photojournalist)
"Anatomy" Jack Coulehan
"Skeletons from India" Lola Haskins
"The Gift" Michael Grassi

Week 8: The Limits of Medicine "A Difference of Opinion" Frank Huyler
"The Hands" John Stone
"The Bleeding Girl" Frank Huyler
"Death Psalm" Denise Levertov
"Mercy" Richard Selzer

Week 9: The Physical Exam
"Baby Doctor" Perri Klass (excerpt)
"Heart Sounds" Robert Harlan Weintraub
"Clothes" Wislawa Szymborska
"Under Investigation" Sue B. Walker
"Annual Physical" Howard Stein
"Becoming a Doctor" Melvin Kronner (excerpt)
"At the Gynecologist's" Linda Pastan
"Riding Chaucer in the Stirrups" Sophie Hughes

Week 10: Breaking Bad News
"Good News" Jack Coulehan
"Charting" Bhuvana Chandra
"Pinguid" Marc Straus
"What the Doctor Said" Raymond Carver
"Talking to the Family" John Stone
"Candor" John Graham-Pole
"The Origin of Music" Dannie Abse

Weeks 11,12: Vulnerability of Self-Disclosure; Ethical Listening Presentation of student projects