NARRATIVE MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Narrative medicine is the practice of using stories to understand health and illness in the context of people's lives. Whether through fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, text or graphics, giving voice to the stories of patients and caregivers allows their experiences to be heard, made sense of, and valued. Learning to listen to others and to express one's own vulnerabilities are valuable tools for all health practitioners, but they are especially valuable in the context of public health. The scope of public health interventions encourages practitioners to think in terms of populations, but efforts to improve quality of life through prevention must ultimately be grounded in individual lives. Explore how narrative medicine techniques can enrich the practice of public health, both through the power of listening to stories to understand how individuals experience health and through the power of telling stories to mobilize communities.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: ( MED SC-M 810 , 811 , 812 and 813 ) or declared in Physician Assistant, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, or Genetic Counselor Studies. Course Designation: Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Spring 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify and employ narrative components such as plot, setting, characters, point of view, and tone Audience: Graduate 2. Use narrative medicine skills in the context of clinical encounters and public health interventions. Audience: Graduate 3. Express yourself in different modes (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, film, graphicnovels), and use both free writing and sustained writing techniques. Audience: Graduate 4. Explain the connections between public health and individual experience, and the difference between viewing problems as personal problems vs public issues. Audience: Graduate 5. Reflect on the meaning of health in the context of people’s everyday lives, especially people who are different from themselves. Audience: Graduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify and employ narrative components such as plot, setting, characters, point of view, and tone Audience: Graduate 2. Use narrative medicine skills in the context of clinical encounters and public health interventions. Audience: Graduate 3. Express yourself in different modes (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, film, graphicnovels), and use both free writing and sustained writing techniques. Audience: Graduate 4. Explain the connections between public health and individual experience, and the difference between viewing problems as personal problems vs public issues. Audience: Graduate 5. Reflect on the meaning of health in the context of people’s everyday lives, especially people who are different from themselves. Audience: Graduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027