April in Narrative Medicine: Creating Trust and Mining Cliché

In our April Community of Practice, we will explore the role of written and graphic stories as a technique to build trust. While there are both stories of trust and distrust in health care, graphic and narrative storytelling offer us tools to create trust through vulnerability and transparency.

Co-facilitator Jennifer Aengst is a medical anthropologist who teaches at Portland State University and conduct qualitative health research at Oregon Health & Science University.

Co-facilitator Dr. Vasquez Guzman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Estela trained at the University of New Mexico, where she specialized in medical sociology, race, and ethnicity. She has developed a strong understanding of the diverse factors affecting racial/ethnic health inequities both within and outside of the health care system. As a first generation Latina immigrant indigenous scholar, she aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice from an equity and inclusion perspective because we all win when we have a compassionate, representative, and humanistic healthcare system. Outside of work, you can find Estela running, dancing, hiking, swimming and/or doing arts and crafts. She also enjoys traveling and cooking authentic Oaxacan food with her mother and family.

Participants in this workshop will be invited to read, write, and discuss. If you require an accommodation, please contact NWNMC at nwnmc.pdx@gmail.com
 

Free and open to all please register here! 

The Role of the Cliché

"One day at a time". "Think outside the box". "Ignorance is bliss". These are just examples of the many clichés writers are warned against. 

But what happens if we challenge closely-held literary values like originality and singularity? 

In this Community of Practice, we will mine clichés. We will examine how cliché can function as a source of ritual and connection within recovery and patient narratives. We will write (as author Leslie Jamison describes) worn "patchwork quilt(s) of phrases sewn together," and see if clichés can indeed become a shelter for writer, clinician, and patient alike."

This workshop will be facilitated by Dr Dana Dieringer.

Participants in this workshop will be invited to read, write, and discuss. If you require an accommodation, please contact NWNMC at nwnmc.pdx@gmail.com