TRENDING MEDICAL EDUCATION TOPIC: MEDICAL JOURNALISM AND THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

Journalism is an important part of a physician’s journey. Storytelling is powerful for advocacy, education, and knowledge translation of nuanced medical practice to the lay public. Journalism is changing and evolving, as is advocacy. 

Clinical team members have an opportunity to move with the field. Many physicians naturally use storytelling as part of their patient care. Physicians can amplify their voices significantly through writing to positively impact the health of the broader population. Physicians are uniquely poised to write about healthcare issues from an educated and frontline vantage point, incorporating patient stories where possible, in contrast to journalists who usually approach these stories from a non-frontline lens.

After this lecture, clinicians will learn to start writing with a better understanding of how to tell a story, generate ideas, deal with barriers, engage editors with pitches, and think critically about writing for the public versus academic audiences. 

Clinicians will also be better prepared for media appearances and leveraging social media for storytelling. Enhancing journalism skills also improve academic writing and the ability to get grants, as storytelling remains essential to all these projects. 

Here are a few important learning objectives to better understand Medical Journalism and the Power of Storytelling:

• Discuss why journalism is important in medicine
• Discover opportunities that exist for writing
• Determine how critical team members can pitch editors
• Describe how to write a story
• Define methods for incorporating writing and humanities into medical education, patient care and their professional development schemes
• Identify the role that humanities activities can play in education/patient care activities
• Identify avenues to pursue that can improve your creative or reflective writing, helping you build resilience and decrease burnout

CLICK HERE to download a PDF file featuring information gaps, potential needs, and references for this topic.

If your medical staff needs an update on the importance of journalism in medicine, consider contacting our office to book a speaker at 877-505-4777 or info@speakersnetwork.com.

REFERENCES

http://www.mynormal.ca/2015/12/narrative-medicine-why.html

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/dr-randi-epstein-medical-storytelling-health-veritas-ep-18

https://hbr.org/2018/10/how-storytelling-can-help-young-doctors-become-more-resilient