VOLVOX: Making Narrative Medicine Happen Alumni Speaker Series

What's in a feeling: Shame and (Professional) Identity in Medical School

with Penelope Lusk, MS '20

Narrative medicine touches the affective, emotional core of healthcare training and practice. How is the training experience shaped or even defined by feelings simmering within the perceived rationality of healthcare and science, and how can practitioners apply the principles of narrative medicine to recognize and hold space for these complex emotions? 

This talk explores the relationship between shame, the strict and temporal expectations of medical training, and identity navigation among medical students and trainees. Unpacking temporality and emotion can clarify the material conditions shaping medical learning and further humanistic and ethical efforts in medicine. Lusk will address how shame shapes medical training and identity formation, and learn about resources for NM practitioners and educators to make shame less taboo and support student growth and wellbeing.