Two Patients: Professional Formation before "Narrative Medicine".
Overview
abstract
In this essay, the author reflects on his development as a physician by recounting two patient narratives of patients he cared for as a third year medical student. In the process of telling these stories of sickness, the author also provides a window on medical practice in the 1980's in an academic medicine center and how practices have changed. Decades before what has been dubbed "narrative medicine," the author learned the power of words to shape relationships and promote professional formation.
