Report on "Literature and Medicine"
By Dr. Lynda Payne, Associate Professor of Medical History, UMKC
"Do you ever end your workday wishing you had a time and a space to reflect with others on some of the larger issues of working in the healthcare field? Do you enjoy reading? If so, consider joining the Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care Group at the Health Sciences Library at St. Luke's Hospital." These words printed on a poster launched the very first Literature & Medicine group in the state of Missouri. Within three days we had 25 people signed up to gather once a month for five sessions to discuss works of fiction and non-fiction chosen to illuminate issues central to caring for people. I was the scholar chosen to facilitate the discussions. I have a background as a nurse, social worker and respiratory therapist, and currently am an associate professor in medical history at the University of Missouri- Kansas City. Marie Thompson at the Health Sciences Library at St. Luke's was in charge of distributing the readings and arranging the catered dinners that preceded the sessions. She would also be part of the group.
The five meetings took place this year between February and June. The first centered on disasters -- the reactions of health care staff and patients to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and to Hurricane Katrina devastating New Orleans. The discussion led to thoughts on what duty means to the older generation of health workers and what it might mean now; how powerless we feel about planning for disasters; and a mixed response on who would go to work and why, versus staying with their family during a disaster.
The second session focused on cultural diversity and perceptions of others. We read works on the diagnosis and treatment of a Hmong girl in California and the memoir of an Alabama black midwife from the mid-twentieth century. The participants analyzed how we homogenize the poor as patients and make assumptions about different cultures.
Our third session was devoted to nursing and we read selections from Florence Nightingale, Louisa May Alcott, and the play W!t about a cancer patient and her caregivers. A frank discussion of what happens to emotions when you are a nurse led us down unanticipated paths—the relationship of wearing isolation gear to how long you spend with a patient, and what emotions drew us to health care in the first place and how they may have changed over time due to experiences with patients and colleagues.
The fourth session focused on the languages of pain. The session got quite lively on the subject of prayer and medicine – I think proof everyone was getting more comfortable with each other in discussion of the books.
The final session focused on the monstrous or wondrous body. We read the report by the surgeon, Frederick Treves, who rescued the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, in the late 19th century from the streets of London, and the award winning 1976 play on Merrick's life and sad death at the age of 28. The group also read a work on the Brooklyn Enigma, Mollie Fancher, who took to her bed for 50 years following a streetcar accident and became famous for her fasting and clairvoyant powers. Her family set up shop and sold Mollie's embroidery to admirers who flocked to her home in the late 19th century. While the life of Merrick raised much sympathy, Fancher's did not. This led to an interesting discussion of our empathy for the innocent (Merrick) and of our derision of those, who like Mollie, become in essence their diagnosis or illness. The readings also raised questions about stigmatization in labeling people as diseased and yet, the necessity for this in the current health insurance system to ensure treatment.
Finally, there was a call for the Literature & Medicine Program to continue if possible as the readings and discussions had led to reflection on the mission of healing, the necessity to listen to patients and colleagues, and to not make assumptions about what others were feeling, thinking, or doing.
My experiences have made me a passionate supporter of the Literature & Medicine Program. It enables people with tremendously busy lives to gather and share aspects of being in different parts of healthcare through the lens of literature -- novels, plays, and poetry. The hierarchical nature of the health care profession is exposed and mitigated in the group sessions, as people who would not normally meet, listen and talk, about the humanity at the heart of healthcare.
