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Through Storytelling, Pre-Health Students Learn How to Connect to the Communities They Serve

“It is about ethics. But we’re not sitting down and running seminars on philosophical theories of ethics. What we’re asking students is…who are you?”

Warren Kinghorn, a professor in Duke’s medical and divinity schools, is describing Re-Imagining Medicine — a summer program that asks pre-health students to develop an understanding of their own stories, the stories of their communities, and the stories of the cultures that have shaped them. Kinghorn says that is the first step in a process of ethical reflection that students will hopefully continue in their future careers as healthcare practitioners.

Sarah Wilbur and ReMed Fellow dancing while seated
Sarah Wilbur (left), Duke associate professor of the practice of dance, and Re-Imagining Medicine Fellow Pranav Mukund dance during a seated movement session in the Rubenstein library. Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.

Re-Imagining Medicine, or ReMed, is part of The Purpose Project at Duke, a collaboration between the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Divinity School, and the Duke Office of Undergraduate Education. Funded by The Duke Endowment, Purpose Project programs seek to integrate questions of meaning and purpose into the Duke student experience.

How does ReMed work?

In mid-May, after commencement, students remain on campus for an immersive week, during which ReMed introduces them to different ways of reflecting on the importance of connection in human relationships. For example, students write journals in response to prompts, discuss how storybooks can help them identify with and understand patients, and visit the North Carolina Museum of Art, where they choose a painting that they feel represents something important about themselves. These activities are led by Duke faculty — many of them physicians who incorporate the medical humanities into their practices.

In one activity, Sarah Wilbur, a Duke dance professor, leads students in movement. During a session with Wilbur, students tapped their feet, clapped their hands, and swayed their arms to music, all while sitting in chairs around a small conference room. Many were smiling and laughing.


“All of us can attend to the questions of who we are, where we are, and with whom we are, and to the stories that surround us.”

– Warren Kinghorn


 

“The benefit of having fellows participate in movement-based activities,” said Victoria Yunez Behm, ReMed Program Coordinator, “is a reminder that what might be perceived as a limitation — such as being in a chair — doesn’t inhibit expression, doesn’t inhibit someone’s dignity, and doesn’t inhibit their ability to celebrate and experience joy of movement and dance.”

Kinghorn noted that the movement session encouraged students to think about themselves as embodied beings, making them more aware of how they physically communicate with others, whether members of their healthcare team or patients.

During the immersive week, ReMed students also visited different healthcare facilities like Duke University Hospital, where they learned about the important roles of non-physician healthcare workers like housekeepers, chaplains, medical interpreters, physical and occupational therapists. They also visited El Futuro, a local nonprofit that offers comprehensive mental health services for Latino families in an environment of healing and hope.

Samantha Cohen speaking to peers
ReMed Fellow Samantha Cohen (center), a pre-health student at Duke University, speaks during discussion on race, medicine, and mental health led by Damon Tweedy, a Duke professor of psychiatry, during the immersive week. Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.

After the immersive week, students depart for summer internships or other work related to health care — such as volunteering in hospitals, doing medical research, serving as EMTs, or providing care in assisted living facilities. They continue to meet with their ReMed cohort during the summer over Zoom to discuss different topics with a guest faculty member each week.

To prepare for each session, the students are given reflection prompts and post their thoughts on a discussion board on Canvas. Some of these prompts have encouraged students to reflect on their own stories and communities, such as preparing and sharing food from their family or culture. Others have encouraged students to engage the community around them, such as visiting a place of historical or cultural significance or interviewing an elder in the community.

Kinghorn and Behm hope that the ReMed sessions during the immersive week and throughout the summer will help students to understand how their stories intertwine with the stories of the communities they are serving and to form bonds with the people there.

“All of us can attend to the questions of who we are, where we are, and with whom we are, and to the stories that surround us,” Warren Kinghorn said. “The specific question of what to do isn’t always fully answered, but it begins to come into clearer focus.”