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Reading provides a gateway to other worlds, new experiences and, at NJMS, to greater compassion for others. Starting next week, 20 members of the NJMS and UMDNJ community will begin to explore the nuances of humanism in health care through a reading and discussion program titled “Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care.” The monthly discussion series is part of a national program established by the Maine Humanities Council in 1997 to provide health care professionals from all walks of life the opportunity to reflect on their professional roles and relationships through discussion of plays, poems, short stories and personal narratives. Past participants have attributed the program with enhancing their communications with patients and colleagues, providing a greater understanding of how different cultural and socio-economic perspectives can affect patient health and patient care, as well as improving their job satisfaction.
The premise of the program is the belief that health care professionals can no longer rely on what they know from their own lives to understand their patients or their colleagues. Literature, however, offers an insight into different experiences and complements what one already knows.
According to Diane Kaufman, MD, professor of Psychiatry, who was instrumental in bringing the program to NJMS, the benefits of the program are two-fold: caring for yourself helps you to ultimately care better for others.
Rachel Hadas, PhD, professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, will facilitate the discussions, which will take place monthly on six Tuesday evenings from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Rosemary Gellene Room. The program begins on January 23 and ends on June 26. A light dinner will be served at each of the six sessions. Participants must participate in all six sessions. Supported by a grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, this program is sponsored by the Healthcare Foundation Center for Humanism and Medicine at NJMS.
To register for the program, contact Tanya Norment at 973-972-5041 or via e-mail normentm@umdnj.edu.