CST 460 topics health care narrative

Answer questions 1-5.

Please engage with the following links, exercises and questions to become more familiar with the health comm narrative approach, where it comes from, and therefore the framework for this class.

post your brief response to the reflection questions as a reply.

Exercise 1 The focus on the field–a quick intro and self reflection on your interests

you might naturally gravitate to focus on one or more of the following main forms of health comm as your interests develop:

messaging–campaigns, advocacy work, public comm, cultural “messages” eg about bodies/health, and related behavior and beliefsetc. internal organizational messages about health and wellness eg of employees.

interaction–patient-caregiver comm, loved ones–patient comm. how people actually talk in health care settings and about their health with others.

experiences–personal narratives of health care and various conditions to understand what they are like. disparity and injustice.

Question: Which of these might you be most interested in at this early stage of the class?

Exercise 2:  Scan of the field and my connection to it

My personal connection to this area of scholarship (why i write and teach about this topic)

as examples of “messaging” see the short article about my work done by the research magazine a couple of years ago. This is how I began my journey into this area of scholarshiup…

https://researchmagazine.uncg.edu/fall-2019/off-the-chart/ (Links to an external site.)

See also mine and others’ brief narratives on the Lowy Medical Research Institute site. These are narratives as advocacy messages.

https://www.lmri.net/pete-kellett/ (Links to an external site.)

Question: what is the value of a narrative aproach to health, and how do I see the relationship of experience to narrative and communication.

See pic of myself, my wife, and my doc–what does this say about the relationship of the quality of comm/interaction to my experience as a patient?

enough about me!

let’s explore the broader fields of narrative medicine and then, more specifically, health communication (part B).

Exercise 3: Narrative medicine:

Coming more from a medical and English discipline/creative writing model is the work called “Narrative medicine.”

there are several programs (Temple, Ohio State, Lenoire Rhyne) but focus on the main one at Columbia University. look at their description of narrative medicine and their research/publications.

https://www.mhe.cuimc.columbia.edu/our-divisions/division-narrative-medicine (Links to an external site.)

Watch the vid of Rita Charon, the founder of this field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24kHX2HtU3o (Links to an external site.)

See also their Journal “Intima” which explores writing, art, poetry, storying and health experiences (ie a diverse approach to “narrative”). Browse their topic areas and types of narrative in a recent edition. Choose a piece of writing or visual narrative that connects to you in some way or is just interesting:

https://www.theintima.org/ (Links to an external site.)

Question: how do they (Columbia University) define narrative medicine? What important insights does Charon provide about the importance of patient narratives? What aspect of the Intima journal (art, poetry, story, fiction, etc) did you find interesting/valuable/surprising?

Intro to narrative and health comm

Recap:having explored my orientation to the topic of this class (health care narratives), and some of the broader field, we will bring it back more closely now to Communication Studies approaches to health care narratives.

Exercise 4: Bringing it back to Communication Studies Research

Browse the following book series, and the following journal (journal of health communication) to see what people are witing about in this topic area.

https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/HCO (Links to an external site.)

https://rowman.com/Action/SERIES/_/LEXSHC/Lexington-Studies-in-Health-Communication (Links to an external site.)

https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Health-Communication/book-series/RRHC (Links to an external site.)

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uhcm20/current?gclid=CjwKCAiAxp-ABhALEiwAXm6IySHLuahYdW6_wqo1U6CpHWf-L11Xa_7QGEj_re_pp6AwFGckj5mi1BoCJPwQAvD_BwE (Links to an external site.)

Question: which books/topics were you surprised that people research? What did you find interesting and potentially relevant to your own emerging topic interest areas in this class?

Exercise 5: Communication Studies departments with a focus on health comm

either Browse the following Communication Studies departments that focus on health communication (or another one that focuses on health communication) find someone whose research you find has a strong connection to yourself, of that is just interesting and/or impactful in the world.

Or look more closely at someone from my books (one of the chapter authors)  via their web info that you found interesting. look more deeply into what they are working on and try to identify the value of the research and its interest to you.

Massey University /Mohan Dutta

http://mohandutta.culturecenteredapproach.com/books/ (Links to an external site.)

George Mason University

https://communication.gmu.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

(See also research and centers tab)

U of Kentucky

https://comm.uky.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

Northwestern

https://communication.northwestern.edu/communication-studies/ (Links to an external site.)

Wake Forest

https://communication.wfu.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

ECU

https://communication.ecu.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

Question: Who did you identify as particularly interesting to you and what are they working on that connects to you?

Post your reply to these questions from exercise 1-5 and any reactions you have so far to the topic of narrative medicine and health comm