{"id":27954,"date":"2019-01-11T15:43:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T20:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=27954"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:10:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:10:21","slug":"english-and-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=27954","title":{"rendered":"Medicine and storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marc
Marc Cohen’s English class spent time in the UNC Hospitals’ Emergency Department, and students wrote about their experiences.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last fall, each student in Marc Cohen\u2019s English 105 class spent four hours shadowing a medical professional in the UNC Emergency Department, immersed in the organized chaos of emergency medicine. Students then reflected on their experience by writing about it.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is easy to get into a routine: eating the same food, seeing the same people, studying the same things in the same way. Professor Marc Cohen wanted to change that routine.This past fall semester, Cohen and his English 105 students embarked on a journey that, for some, changed the course of their educational career.<\/p>\n

English 105 introduces students to academic writing across the disciplines of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. This course develops advanced writing skills that focus on identifying how genres, styles of writing, arguments and forms of evidence differ across disciplines, audiences and purposes. The breadth of focus in English 105 allows for innovative, real-world, experiential teaching courses, like those crafted by\u00a0 Cohen.<\/p>\n

\"One
One student characterized the experience as “mind-blowing” and said it opened up a new love of scientific writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In collaboration with the chair of UNC Hospitals Emergency Department, Jane Brice, each student in Cohen\u2019s English 105 class spent four hours shadowing a medical professional in the UNC Emergency Department, immersed in the organized chaos of emergency medicine. Students then reflected on their experience by writing a piece in the style of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times<\/em> journalist Sheri Fink, author of \u201cLife, Death, and Grim Routine Fill the Day at a Liberian Ebola Clinic,\u201d a story in which Fink uses experiential writing to describe a makeshift West African Ebola clinic. Cohen asked students to draw inspiration from her writing style to bring to life their unique shadowing experience. \u201cI\u2019m a big believer in experiential education,\u201d said Cohen. \u201cWriting about an experience like that calls upon every skill that a writer has in his or her toolkit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students were assigned to one of the four areas of the the Emergency Department: the Main Emergency Department, Psychiatric Emergency Services, the Pediatric Emergency Department and Emergency Medical Services. No two students had the same experience: some dealt with intense trauma situations, others had conversations with patients under psychiatric care, and a few spent time in the back of an ambulance. Despite these differences, every student learned that there are skills that transcend any one genre. Writing about experience encouraged students to hone every writing skill they had. Storytelling, analyzing, bringing people and experiences to life. These are vital to any field.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students spent time in different areas of the hospital, but learned that good writing transcends any area or genre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ER doctor who first-year Ariana Luterman shadowed was an English major, who emphasized his firm belief that every student should take some English classes in order to learn how to articulate their thoughts in a concise and effective manner. Luterman described her shadowing experience as \u201cmind-blowing.\u201d She came to UNC planning to major in nutritional science, but this project led her to realize she has a passion for storytelling. \u201cThis project really opened my eyes to the English major and how I absolutely love writing about science,\u201d said Luterman. \u201cI found the English major with a concentration in scientific literature and medicine, and that was it.\u201d She credits this project with giving her the tools to learn how to tell stories in an effective and powerful way.<\/p>\n

Mervan Fadhil, a student of Cohen planning to attend a Physician\u2019s Assistant program, emphasized the importance of clear communication in the medical field. She described how it is essential that doctors skillfully and efficiently communicate with each other in order to provide patients with the best care possible. Every participating student learned something unique from this experience. Not only did they experience an energetic, adrenaline-filled day in a doctor\u2019s life in the Emergency Department, but they also acquired writing skills that can be applied to any genre or field.<\/p>\n

Cohen believes that, by using this project to hone their writing and storytelling skills, his students have achieved something important. \u201cShadowing in the ER taught us about emergency medicine, yes. But it also opened our eyes to certain realities in our culture. This experience\u2026 it kind of rocked our worlds,\u201d said Cohen.<\/p>\n

By Halynna Snyder, Digital Communications Intern, Department of English and Comparative Literature<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last fall, each student in Marc Cohen\u2019s English 105 class spent four hours shadowing a medical professional in the UNC Emergency Department, immersed in the organized chaos of emergency medicine. Students then reflected on their experience by writing about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,15,29,33,21,34,18],"tags":[24,25,26,68,69,70,71,36,37,38,39,40],"class_list":["post-27954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-fine-arts-humanities","category-general","category-media-news","category-news","category-news-archive","category-undergraduate-education","tag-carolina","tag-college-of-arts-sciences","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-emergency-department","tag-emergency-medicine","tag-english-105","tag-english-and-medicine","tag-unc","tag-unc-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-chapel-hill","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49085,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27954\/revisions\/49085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}