Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care uses a deceptively simple yet unique approach to serve health care professionals and, in consequence, their patients. Health care professionals from all levels of the hierarchy gather as equals to participate in a reading and discussion program, facilitated by a humanities-trained scholar. They talk about literature that helps them gain new perspectives toward themselves, each other, and their patients. Formal evaluations show that this program works: medical professionals report improved morale, greater empathy, increased cultural sensitivity, and improved interpersonal and communication skills.
A suggestion from a friend brought Enoch Albert, a nurse at Togus Veterans’ Hospital, into the Literature & Medicine fold. He was interested in the concept of a program “designed to promote discussion among a diverse group of people who work together but don’t often get the chance to talk and share ideas and emotions informally,” and this turned into a commitment that lasted throughout his years at Togus before his retirement. Enoch became a co-liason with physician assistant Dan Hamilton, the friend who introduced him to the program, coordinating as well as participating in the group at Togus.
Enoch’s group mirrored the diversity of other Literature & Medicine groups: it included administrators, secretaries, social workers, physician assistants, nurses, and physicians. Literature & Medicine aims to help participants understand and empathize with their patients and their colleagues. This was especially important at Togus as medical staff’s experiences often differed dramatically from their patients’. When he joined the group, Enoch realized that most of the staff were not combat veterans and “had no idea what those who were in combat experienced.”
The attempts of health care professionals to open communication with veterans can also be difficult because many veterans don’t want to talk about their experiences. This made readings, especially those about combat experiences, critical in helping staff gain a perspective on their patients without pressing patients to enter into an uncomfortable conversation.
“I think the readings, but more importantly the discussions, gave those of us who have not experienced combat a slightly better understanding of the relationship between those veterans and the VA as an institution, as well as some of the extreme situations combat vets experience,” Enoch said. Our facilitators were not from the hospital, and their outside perspectives led to “some new understanding of the problems that vets and the Togus staff have.”
Many of Enoch’s colleagues found the program extremely powerful. “I have heard more than one physician state they have a new appreciation of veterans’ experiences and would look on them from a different perspective as a result, and I believe the readings and discussion helped me and others better serve veterans at the end of their lives as a result of Literature & Medicine.”
The program itself has been so meaningful to Enoch that after he and his wife moved to Bar Harbor four years ago, they joined a Literature & Medicine group at Mount Desert Island Hospital. They have been part of it ever since.
Major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Public Programming), the Maine Community Foundation Fund, the Morton Family Foundation, and the Hawai‘i Humanities Council.
