Blog by Susanne Lundin In this second part of a two-part series on the role of ethnology as a humanistic discipline, we look closely at ethnological methods. We saw in part one how a nineteenth-century pregnant farmer’s wife in a Swedish parish placed an axe under her marital bed, hoping to influence the sex of […]
Latest articles
Conference Announcement: Medicine and The Arts Symposium, Barcelona, 19th-21st October 2023
Announcement by Jonathan McFarland, President of The Doctor as a Humanist Medicine and healthcare seem to be at a crossroads; some may say, reinterpreting Shakespeare that there is something rotten in the state medical education, and thus in healthcare, in general. And certainly, since the pandemic, whose vestiges are still being seen around the world, […]
Podcast with Stuart Murray and David Tabron
Podcast with Stuart Murray and David Tabron In this episode, Brandy speaks to Stuart Murray and David Tabron. David works for Blueberry Academy, a business that operates in special educational needs. “We’re a training provider, a post-16 training provider. And we also operate in health and social care,” David explains. Blueberry Academy was set up […]
June 2023 Special Issue: Talking About Sex and Reproduction: Counselling in Postwar Europe
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 […]
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 […]