Literature and science: a different look inside neurodegeneration

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

2013

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Objective. To design, integrate, and assess the effectiveness of a medical humanities teaching module that focuses on pharmaceutical care for dementia patients. Design. Visual and textual dementia narratives were presented using a combination of teacher and learner-centered approaches with the aim being to highlight patients' and caregivers' needs for empathy and counselling. Assessment. As gauged from pre-and post-experience questionnaires, students highly rated this approach to teaching medical humanities. In-class presentations demonstrated students' increased sensitivity to patient and caregiver needs, while objective learning outcomes demonstrated students' increased knowledge and awareness. Conclusions. Pharmacy students were open to and successfully learned from reading and discussing patient and caregiver narratives, which furthers the discussion on the value of integrating the medical humanities into the curricula of pharmacy and other health sciences.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Medical Humanities into a Pharmaceutical Care Seminar on Dementia

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

2013

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“…For the purpose of these explorations, I specifically distinguish the notion of Alzheimer's disease, and dementia more broadly, from other brain damage insofar as the triad of incremental, chronic and untreatable 45 Frank, Storyteller, p. 21 (Frank 1995 ', Advances in Physiology Education, 36 (2012), pp. 68-71 (Burkhardt et al 2012). cognitive decline is the core threat in the Alzheimer's experience. In particular, I see a clear distinction between brain damage caused by events like a brain tumour, which usually involves very fast degeneration, a stroke, where the degenerative process is not experienced at all, or drug abuse, which implies self-inflicted brain cell death.…”

Section: Alzheimer's Disease and Narrative Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Poetics and Politics of Alzheimer’s Disease Life-Writing

Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine

2017

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Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine is an exciting new series that focuses on one of the most vibrant and interdisciplinary areas in literary studies: the intersection of literature, science and medicine. Comprised of academic monographs, essay collections, and Palgrave Pivot books, the series will emphasize a historical approach to its subjects, in conjunction with a range of other theoretical approaches. The series will cover all aspects of this rich and varied field and is open to new and emerging topics as well as established ones.

Introduction

The Poetics and Politics of Alzheimer’s Disease Life-Writing

2017

The introduction gives an overview on sociopolitical and research-related developments regarding dementia, and attempts explanations for why the interest in dementia of critical scholarship continues to be very limited and particularly focused on caregiver accounts. It illustrates that an understanding of the obvious neglect of dementia patient narratives sheds some light onto the ethical implications and challenges of critically reading such narratives: these narratives seem least of all fit to match classical survivor illness literature, and serious impairment in the ability to tell or understand stories has been taken as motivation to neglect patient narratives. Approaches highlighting the importance of pre-narrative identity and a growing body of psycho-philosophical work demand a closer scrutiny of patient narratives, which would also amplify their author-narrators’ advocacy.