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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Apr 28.
Published in final edited form as: Acad Med. 2014 Feb;89(2):335–342. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000098

Table 1.

Narrative Medicine Seminars Offered to Second-Year Medical Students at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S), 2010

Seminar Core content Major teaching process
Close reading/writing
 The Philosophy of Death Fictional and philosophical depictions of death Close reading, philosophic reasoning; writing prompts to fictional reading
 Fiction Workshop Short published fiction; essays on form; students’ short stories Close reading of published fiction; the creative writing workshop
 The City of the Hospital: The Medical Student as Writer Short published essays on medicine; students’ creative nonfiction Writing in the classroom; the writing workshop
 Understanding Illness in Young Adults Through First-Person Narratives of Patients and Their Caregivers Illness narratives of young adults, written and Web based Close reading; discussion of illness in families; writing about personal experiences with illness
Visual art
 The Professional Eye (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Looking at exhibited works in the Met; curator-guided tours Close looking and talking about works; studio art components
 The Language of Visual Experience: Telling Stories About Pictures (MoMA, Museum of Modern Art) Looking at exhibited works in MoMA; curator-guided tours Looking at and talking about works of art; studio art components
 Why Works of Art Matter (The Frick Collection) Close, slow looking of one art work per session Conversation about chosen work; readings by artists and art historians
 Narrative Photography: Seeing the Human Story Through the Still Image The photographic process of composing, framing, finishing; whether photography belongs in health care Workshopping photographic work; visits to photographic installations in the city
 Attending to Movies: Affect and Insight Film series with salience to illness and care; cinema theory of empathy Films watched prior to class; writing in class in response to films
Social sciences/other
 Social Justice and Health Curriculum development seminar on global health; sessions with thought leaders at P&S to develop curriculum in global health Interviews with international students; collaborative student-run seminar
 From Spoken Word to Sick Tats: Youth, Illness, and New Media Youth culture among chronically ill adolescents Spoken word, visual media representations from Web/video sources; guest performers
 How Does Emotion Impact the Body? Mind–body relationships in health and illness Health psychology readings; class interviews; guest speakers
 Mindfulness Meditation Development of mindfulness through yoga and meditation Training in methods of meditation, relaxation; readings in salience to health care goals