Medicine Grand Rounds: Kathryn B. Kirkland, MD
The William N. Chambers Lecture: “Reading Ourselves, Reading Others: How Narrative Practice Makes Better Doctors”
Medicine Grand Rounds on Friday, March 23, 2018 for the William N. Chambers Lecture titled:
“Reading Ourselves, Reading Others: How Narrative Practice Makes Better Doctors”
Kathryn B. Kirkland, MD
Dorothy and John J. Byrne, Jr, Distinguished Chair in Palliative Medicine
Professor of Medicine and of The Dartmouth Institute
The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Section Chief, Palliative Medicine
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Auditorium E, Rubin Building, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Co-sponsored by the Department of Medicine
The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
and The William N. Chambers Memorial Fund
established in 1971 by Susan B. Chambers
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the importance of narrative skills in clinical care and team functioning
- Consider evidence from social science and neuroscience regarding associations between reading and empathy
- Experience how a narrative medicine session contributes to development of narrative competency
- Reflect on ways in which reading and writing in community might contribute to more attentive, effective, and happy doctors
The William N. Chambers Memorial Fund
Dr. William N. Chambers began his 25-year career at Dartmouth Medical School in 1946, rising to the rank of Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine. A highly respected physician and educator, Dr. Chambers became known throughout the New England region for his compassionate approach to patients and for his inspired writing on medical practice. He believed in treating the whole person and viewed the practice of medicine as a calling.
Following Dr. Chambers’ death in 1970, his widow, Susan Chambers, established the William N. Chambers Memorial Fund to “perpetuate the ideals of medical practice as exemplified by the life of Dr. Chambers, with particular emphasis on the perception of human values in the understanding and the relief of illness.” This endowed fund supports clinical teaching programs designed to inspire “renewed commitment to the total care of the patient, guided by high spiritual values…an extraordinary depth of understanding and a total dedication to their welfare.”
Both the fund and the lecture that bear Dr. Chambers’ name are a vibrant part of the life of the Department of Medicine and a continuing testament to the profound effect he had on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical community.