Literature and Medicine: A Fortunate Life?
Thursday 25th February 2016: 6:15pm – 7.15pm
E P Abraham Lecture Theatre, Green Templeton College
Using John Berger’s A Fortunate Man, a book about the life of a country doctor in 1960s rural Gloucestershire, as a starting point, Sophie Ratcliffe and Andrew Schuman, co-founders of The Poetry of Medicine project (www.lit-med.com) will lead a panel discussion on the subject of stress and burnout in the NHS – and how the written word and creative thinking might help.
Short biographies of the panellists are given below.
Bob Clarke is currently a sessional GP and independent medical educator, in the latter role working in close association with the BMA. Previously he was a GP partner for 18 years and an Associate Dean at the London Deanery.
Carolyn Howe is a coal face GP working in the NHS for the last 28 years. She has a particular interest in diabetes and women’s health. She left her partnership in October 2015 and is now doing locum work within the same practice.
Richard Lyus is a doctor working in outpatient gynaecological, sexual and reproductive health, and abortion provision. He trained in America in Family Health/General Practice.
Sophie Ratcliffe is an Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Oxford. Her first book, about the relationship between feeling and reading, was called On Sympathy (OUP, 2008). Her current research projects include a study of the relationship between literature and medicine in the nineteenth century.
Sara Riley is a GP who works with the BMA and GMC as a GP advisor and supporter as well as a pastoral support officer with the local LMC, and appraiser. She also works as a therapist with some doctors.
Andrew Schuman is a GP who also teaches medical students and trainee doctors. He is a co-founder of the Poetry of Medicine. He is the medical advisor to Re-Lit: The Bibliotherapy Foundation and has co-edited the anthology Stressed, Unstressed (HarperCollins, 2016), a poetry book aimed at encouraging mindful reading for wellbeing.
All welcome: graduates, undergraduates, humanities and medical researchers, clinicians and interested others
Convenors: Peter Friend, Green Templeton College, Laura Tradii, Green Templeton College, Laurie Maguire, Magdalen College