Perspectives on Interdisciplinary Teamwork & Proposing the Pitch: Workshops from the NMCC
Part II of the Narrative Medicine Case Competition 2024 Recap
Throughout the 2024 Narrative Medicine Case Competition, three workshops were held to help the participants improve their approach and understanding of narrative medicine, the case that was assigned, and how to give a great presentation to convey their ideas to the judges.
Team Mapping Workshop with the ISU
The first workshop was led by Sarah Fletcher, a medical anthropologist from the UBC Innovation Support Unit. She gave a workshop to strengthen the understanding of the dynamics of the healthcare system through a simulation activity. Each group was given a role with the description and circumstances. From there, the participants were asked to discuss and walk through the logistics and flow of how the patients go through the healthcare experience from the perspective of the role they were given. This way, the participants are exposed to the complexity of the healthcare system, thinking about what is lacking and what can be improved in supporting the patients, which can be applied to the given case.
Interdisciplinary Teamwork Workshop with Kent Loftsgard
The next workshop focused on the expectations and perspectives towards the healthcare profession and was led by Kent Loftsgard with the assistance of Carolyn Canfield. The participants were asked to write down their aspiring healthcare profession and were asked to write down the description below the profession that was written by others. From those inputs, a discussion began that mainly focused on how the perspective of others on your own aspiring profession differed. This activity was very simple yet very effective in understanding the various viewpoints towards the responsibilities of the specific profession, and how each of the roles carried a different standpoint in the healthcare community. I believe this activity helped to emphasize the importance of narrative medicine, as how we view things can vary from others, and it is important for us to be able to consider new ideas.d out
Developing the Pitch Workshop with Sonya Prasad and Christina Lam
The third workshop, which focused on pitching and presenting ideas, was given by Sonya Prasad and Christina Lam, two members of the winning team from last year’s case competition. The workshop went over the details and contents of the presentation that helped the team win last year, which facilitated the participants’ learning of the expectations of the presentation and improved their own case pitch. Also, they shared advice about presentation skills as well as how to work with a team effectively to be successful in the competition. This workshop provided useful skills and experienced opinions that the participants were able to apply in their own presentations and perhaps were able to find out what else to work on to build their perfect pitch.
We appreciate all the participants who participated in the workshops, and the speakers who spent a weekend with us to not only help the participants improve in their work but also facilitate and share their understanding of narrative medicine and its significance in the healthcare environment.
– Azuki Tokunaga (Blog Committee Member)
