Palliative care has shown the courage and creativity to accompany patients through the sufferings of terminal illnesses. As a model of clinical practice attuned to the singular situations of each patient, family, and clinician, palliative care has achieved an ideal of narrative medicine: a care that embodies real presence, on-going personal investment, and radical listening to the stories of those living in the face of death--whenever and however far away that may be. Whether care is provided in in-patient acute care settings, ambulatory clinics, hospices, or patients' homes, narrative palliative care shows what dignified, respectful, humble care of the sick and the well should always be.
The Workshop in Narrative Palliative Care welcomes guest faculty B.J. Miller and Craig Blinderman, two international pioneers in a narratively and creatively fortified palliative care to join the core faculty of Columbia's Narrative Medicine for a weekend of personal and professional exploration.
Narrative medicine's signature methods of close reading, writing for discovery, and visual and performative learning provide the workshop with intensive training in the creative dimensions of palliative care where trust and vision can grow. To expand the scope of our conversation, narratively trained clinicians will present their lessons in international palliative care, care management in home hospice, student and resident self-care within palliative care, and spiritual dimensions of narrative care at the end of life. Participants will deepen their understanding of the place of story-telling in the care of serious illness, both for patients' and family's support and for clinicians' existential well-being. We hope persons engaged in all clinical disciplines, palliative care, narrative medicine, patient advocates, and creative artists involved in health will join us.
The Basic Narrative Medicine Workshop's first-time participants will derive foundational training in narrative medicine concepts and methods that are covered in our twice-yearly Basic Narrative Medicine Workshops. Participants who have already completed a Basic Narrative Medicine Workshop will experience new lectures and small group activities to begin on Friday, March 23rd at 2 pm and conclude on Sunday, March 25th at 5 pm. All members of the Core Faculty of Narrative Medicine will give presentations and facilitate small groups. These lectures will not be repeated from prior Basic Narrative Medicine Workshops. Completing this workshop will make participants eligible to enroll in a future Advanced Narrative Medicine Workshop.
