Talking about Sexual and Reproductive Health: Counselling Encounters in Postwar Europe Jenny Bangham, Yuliya Hilevych, Caroline Rusterholz “If We Can Show That We Are Helping Adolescents to Understand Themselves, Their Feelings and Their Needs, Then We Are Doing [a] Valuable Job”: Counselling Young People on Sexual Health in the Brook Advisory Centre (1965–1985) Caroline Rusterholz […]
Latest articles
Health Colonialism: Urban Wastelands and Hospital Frontiers
Book Review by Kristie Serota At ninety-nine short pages, Shiloh Krupar’s new book Health Colonialism: Urban Wastelands and Hospital Frontiers (2023) is an epistemological heavyweight. This small book, one in a series of thought-in-process scholarship from the University of Minnesota Press, is light to hold and heavy to read. Krupar explores the geographical foundations of […]
Book Excerpt from Ike Anya’s Small by Small
Book Excerpt from Ike Anya’s Small by Small Small by Small, Ike Anya’s newly published memoir, charts his journey to become a doctor in Nigeria. A medical memoir unlike any from the West, it is filled with the colour and vibrancy of tempestuous 1990s Nigeria, where political unrest, social change and a worsening economy make […]
Making the ‘Genetic Counsellor’ in the UK, 1980–1995
Article Summary by Jenny Bangham Genetic counsellors are medical professionals who help parents and patients interpret the results of genetic tests. Genetic testing is routine in pregnancy and paediatrics, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in other specialisms, such as oncology and cardiology. The results of genetic tests are potentially highly emotional—provoking guilt, fear, confusion (as […]
Virtuosic Craft or Clerical Labour: The Rise of the Electronic Health Record and Challenges to Physicians’ Professional Identity (1950–2022)
Article Summary by Lakshmi Krishnan and Michael J. Neuss What is the work of physicians? Are we historians, detectives, magicians, or educators? Or is our craft merely clerical work, our labor just data entry for other users—both human and non-human, intelligent and artificially intelligent—in non-clinical areas like finance and research? Physicians today express deep anxieties […]
Understanding the Value of Art Prompts in an Online Narrative Medicine Workshop: An Exploratory-Descriptive Focus Group Study
Article Summary by Nancy Choe Narrative medicine supports healthcare training by helping healthcare workers develop narrative competence skills and use creativity through writing prompts. Narrative medicine is also used to enhance empathy and counter burnout among healthcare workers. While evidence suggests that arts-based interventions can benefit healthcare workers’ well-being and personal growth, using art prompts […]
Italian Nurses in Crisis, interview with Mattia Colombo and Gianluca Matarrese, co-directors of documentary film ‘Il Posto’ (Italy, 2023)
Interview by Khalid Ali ‘Il Posto’ is showing on Saturday 24 June at Bertha DocHouse, as part of the Cinecittà Italian Docs season, https://dochouse.org/event/italian-doc-season-a-steady-job/ The report ‘Sustain and Retain in 2022 and beyond’ showed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the already fragile state of the global nursing workforce.1 The situation in Italy is […]
Bittersweet Potatoes: Noura Kevorkian, Documentary Film Maker, Reflects on the Plight and Resilience of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
Interview with Noura Kevorkian by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent In this podcast, Noura Kevorkian discusses the personal and professional journey of her award-winning documentary ‘Batata’, its impact on the film’s protagonists, and how the film advocates for the rights of refugees around the world. Noura Kevorkian is a Syrian/ Lebanese documentary […]
Contact Building: Emotional Exchanges Between Counsellees and Counsellors in the Late Socialist Period in Poland
Article Summary by Agnieszka Kościańska This article focuses on Wiesław Sokoluk, one of the key Polish youth counsellors and sex educators active during the late socialist period (the 1970s and 1980s), looking at his path to becoming a sex educator and youth counsellor as well as his practice in both fields. Sokoluk started his career […]
Sparing the Doctor’s Blushes: The Use of Sexually Explicit Films for the Purpose of Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) in the Training of Medical Practitioners in Britain During the 1970s
Article Summary by Rob Irwin How best to prepare healthcare professionals to address their patients’ sexual health and wellbeing concerns is a question still in need of an answer. This article describes an early educational approach, the Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR) seminar, that was used in some British medical schools during the 1970s to prepare […]