Brian and Cynthia (Cyndy) Unwin team teach the narrative medicine elective for students at the medical school.

Brian and Cyndy Unwin are spouses and team-teach the elective. Brian spent almost three decades in the military, earning his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University, with a focus in family medicine and geriatrics. Later, he served as faculty at the military medical school for nine years. Cyndys background is in elementary and reading education. Ive spent most of my career working with children with literacy difficulties, Cyndy Unwin said. About 20 years ago, I started thinking I might also like to write books for kids. Since then, she has published several childrens books and continues her involvement in childrens literacy.

In 2013, Brian retired from the U.S. Army and the Unwins moved to Roanoke, Virginia, so he could practice with Carilion Clinic and serve as faculty at VTCSOM. Four years ago, Cyndy also began working with the medical students in an advisory role to help them fine-tune their personal statements for residency applications.

When the school began exploring the idea of adding a narrative medicine elective three years ago, leadership asked the Unwins to lead the course, recognizing the couples mix of strengths and backgrounds. It is one of three electives at the school that students can take during the first two years of study. Successful completion of an elective gives students extra credit hours to use in their fourth year, allowing more time to travel for residency interviews or use for vacation. The other two electives are Mindfulness and Medical Spanish.

The electives have been popular for students. I joined narrative medicine because I want to remember why I am doing this, make sure that I develop the skills to always pull my head up from the specifics, and remember that the connection with a patient can be just as important as the medicine provided, said Abra Roberts, a second-year VTCSOM student.

The narrative medicine elective has had three cohorts of students. In addition to reading assignments and class discussion, students complete three narrative projects. The first is a personal memoir. The other two are focused around patient interviews. Students have completed the projects using diverse types of media, including writing, art, music, and drama.

Understanding a patients health narrative is important and part of what it means to take care of someone, said Kian Tehranchi, a fourth-year student at VTCSOM. I think this class will push me to prioritize getting my patients stories in the future.

While medical students receive training in other coursework on how to complete a patient interview in the context of medical care, these assignments require students to dig deeper and reveal more about the patient as a person.

The projects challenged students to apply that idea later in their practice. I learned how to better view a situation from the patients perspective and not to shy away from the difficult questions, said fourth-year student Keri Godbe.

This course has made me realize just how deep the doctor-patient relationship can be and how important it is in the context of care, said third-year student Jacob Hartman-Kenzler. I feel like we were given the chance to pull back the curtain and talk about aspects of medicine that doctors usually arent exposed to until much later in their careers. This course has helped me realize how I want to practice medicine, regardless of specialty, and how I want my patients to feel when theyre in my care.

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Narrative Medicine Challenges Med Students to Discover The Person Within The Patient - The Roanoke Star