For immediate release: Feb. 6, 2009
Contact: Anne McMillin, APR
Health Science Communications
Office 775-682-9254
Mobile 702-292-4247
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
School of Medicine, Renown Health team up to create literature and medicine program
Program effective in creating compassion in physicians
RENO, Nev.— The University of Nevada School of Medicine received a $3,000 pilot grant from Nevada Humanities to team up with Renown Health to create a literature and medicine program inspired by the Maine Humanities Council’s Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care®. The partnership between the School of Medicine and Renown Health includes the participation of Washoe County physicians as well as the University of Nevada, Reno, Division of Health Sciences faculty and Renown employees, from administrators to clinicians.
The literature and medicine program encourages participants to connect the worlds of science and lived experience, giving them the opportunity to reflect on their professional roles and relationships through plays, short stories, poetry, fiction and personal narratives in a setting where they can share their reflections with colleagues. It has had a significant effect on the way participants understand their work, and their relationships, according to Marin Gillis, Ph.D., director of the medical humanities and ethics division at the School of Medicine.
Susan Palwick, Ph.D., associate professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno and a volunteer chaplain will facilitate the book groups with the next session held Tuesday, Feb. 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Renown Health, Classroom 107. The group will discuss The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. All interested health care professionals are welcome to attend.
“As a busy physician, I often find that I don't have as much time as I'd like for personal growth and reflection on a day-to-day basis,” said Christopher Stanton M.D., a Renown Health physician practicing in Sparks. “‘Nevada: The Literature & Medicine’ reading group is a convenient, valuable, high quality vehicle to facilitate our medical souls."
The literature and medicine program was first piloted in Maine in 1997. Since then, health care professionals in 79 hospitals and community health care facilities in Maine and 13 partnering states have participated. The literature and medicine program is a national award-winning, hospital-based, scholar-led humanities reading and discussion program for health care professionals for the benefit of both patients and doctors.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.