The University of Southern Denmark, Odense, is a pioneer in implementing Narrative Medicine as a mandatory course in medical education. The 6-week course in Narrative Medicine is embedded in a professional track called “Human first” () that includes courses in health psychology and professional ethics as well as visiting a patient in their home, which is followed by supervision and reflective writing.
The vision is that narrative medicine becomes an integral part of the Danish healthcare system with University of Southern Denmark as the leading site for development of innovative forms of health promotion, diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care, education activities as well as international research collaboration and network.
Narrative medicine aims to be a crucial contribution to answering the complex societal challenges in the development of a person-centered healthcare system.
We focus on the following research questions:
- How can narrative medicine help students in their professional identity formation and strengthen future healthcare professionals’ competencies for understanding, thinking about, communicating and acting on behalf of patients’ illnesses and citizens’ health-related narratives?
- How can narrative-based methods contribute to healthcare professionals’ professional identity formation, for example through reflection and reflective writing.
- How can narrative Medicine help strengthen the competencies of patients, relatives and citizens in order to manage health challenges, illness, rehabilitation and palliative care?
Narrative-based approaches that include perspectives from the humanities can strengthen a more holistic, nuanced and complex understanding of patients and relatives. This approach encompasses an attention to storytelling and use of language, including illness metaphors. The ambition is to investigate whether narrative-based approaches can also contribute to strengthening the quality of life and sense of meaning for patients, relatives and citizens in relation to rehabilitation and health promotion.
Narrative medicine is carried out in an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the humanities and health sciences at 糖果派对 and Odense University Hospital, and is based on strong relationships with international research environments; particularly Columbia Narrative Medicine at Columbia University (US), Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool (UK), the Birgit Rausing Centrum för Medicinsk Humaniora at Lunds Universitet (SE) and the German Network for Narrative Medicine (GER).