Il ruolo della Narrative in Medical Ethics, Medical Practice e Medical Education. Elementi di ricerca

The main goal of this Ph.D. thesis is to investigate the role of narrative within three fields of research: Medical Ethics, Medical Practice and Medical Education. The thesis is divided into four chapters: the first three are theoretical, while in the four chapter I present an empirical study which I conducted in the United States. In the first chapter, I analyze the role of narrative within the Medical Ethics: I explain what narrative ethics is, what the motivations behind its development are, and who are its main exponents. In this chapter, I also examine the problems that ethical narrative raises, suggesting a new way in which it is integrated into bioethics. The second chapter is devoted to explain how narrative contributes to Medical Practice: I investigate the ways in which the patient can use narrative to analyze both his/her experience of illness and the so-called Narrative Medicine. The third chapter is devoted to the analysis of Medical Humanities: the latter is a discipline which, within the medical education, can be considered an effective tool for a more balanced and comprehensive training of healthcare professionals. The fourth and the last chapter is devoted to describe my research at the University of California ࢠIrvine: I have attended courses at the Program in Medical Humanities and Arts headed by Prof. J. Shapiro, (this Program was implemented to enhance aspects of professionalism, such as empathy, altruism, compassion, and caring towards patients, as well as to hone clinical communication and observational skills) and interviewed the students who took part in these courses.