Official Launch of the UBC Humanities in Healthcare Blog!
Hello everyone and welcome to the first blog of the Humanities in Healthcare (HIH) Club!
HIH is an interdisciplinary club at the University of British Columbia that was first established with the AMS in the Summer of 2022. The Co-Founders and Co-Presidents (Kimia Nouhi and Madison Estrella) were deeply interested in healthcare as aspiring healthcare professionals. After a conversation about the issues they both faced in the healthcare system as patients, providers and caregivers, and their previous readings into Narrative Medicine, they were inspired to start a non-profit organization to raise awareness about Narrative Medicine and the overarching theme of integrating humanities into healthcare.
They mainly aimed to establish a club with like-minded individuals to explore the humanities, narrative medicine, and the social sciences, and to further educate future healthcare professionals and foster discussion on patient-centred care. The Co-Founders wanted to spark discussions on overlooked aspects of healthcare and bring together a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences of individuals in pursuit of healthcare as a profession or as a patient and caregiver themselves.
Co-Founders and Co-Presidents (Left: Madison, Right: Kimia)
Hosting many successful events such as the Interdisciplinary Healthcare Panel, Stress and Meditation Workshops, Student Life Tips from Physicians and the Narrative Medicine Case Competition in the 2022-2023 academic year, the Co-Presidents wanted to take the club one step further and promote their ideas and stories through a blog, as they truly believe the foundations of humanities in healthcare and narrative medicine lie in story sharing and personalized narratives.
Through this blog, we hope to touch on narrative medicine, compassionate care, the issues within the healthcare system, personal stories as patients and providers, and share event recaps and summaries. The HIH blog will soon take requested topics from members and provide the option for members to publish their own writing pieces!
“Medicine begins with storytelling. Patients tell stories to describe illness; doctors tell stories to understand it.”
UBC AMS HIH 2023-2024 Exectuive Team
Please subscribe to our newsletter to get notified about new blog posts and upcoming events. You can also fill out the following form if you’d like to request a topic or submit your own blog to be published!
Interested in participating in Humanities in Healthcare as a general member? Fill out our membership form!
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us in case of questions at ubc.hih@gmail.com.
That’s all for now and take care!
By Kimia Nouhi (she/her/hers) | Co-Founder & Co-President
