NARRATIVE-BASED MEDICAL WRITING: AN EMP CASE STUDY

Abstract

The article discusses a case study employing medical writing for the development of skills, attitudes and values that are essential for the healthcare worker’s identity. The emphasis is made on empathy, communication skills and communicative tolerance. The authors argue that these attitudes can be enhanced in the academic curriculum of medical universities. The possible way to improve personal qualities essential for the future career of a medical worker is through narrative-based medical writing, which can be implemented in the course of the English for Specific (Medical) Purposes (ES(M)P) course.  The 13-week course ‘Narrative-based medical writing’ designed and performed at Voronezh Medical University involved 60 undergraduate students. The participants had to complete 10 to 13 writing assignments describing patients’ experience of a disease. The key findings of the study have demonstrated a more competent usage of reflective writing techniques, a higher level of empathy manifestation and communicative tolerance comparing to the baseline measurements. These results support the idea that EMP with a narrative-based writing module can make an essential contribution to the development of communicative tolerance and empathic manifestation, thereby enabling the development of the crucial professional attitudes of a healthcare practitioner.