Mindful Rounds, Narrative Medicine, House Calls, and Other Stories

Abstract

Personal, creative writing, as a process in “clinical mindfulness”, has been a practice I have engaged in for most of my professional life as doctor and educator in family medicine. The “rules” of my writing practice encouraged me to “go for the jugular”, to write what I did not want to write about, so my prose and poetry tends to be based on difficult emotions, conflicting perspectives, and vulnerability. Another crucial step in the practice, however, is in the reading of the narratives in a mindful, non-judgmental or literary way. Through the narratives, I illustrate these mindful writing and reading skills. This practice has been inspired by great teachers in the worlds of creative writing, reflective writing, narrative medicine, the medical humanities, medical education, and mindfulness-based meditation practice.

Autobiography is only to be trusted if it reveals something shameful.

—George Orwell