Healing for Healers Symposium

The goal of the inaugural Duke Anesthesiology Healing for Healers Symposium is to provide Duke Health clinicians with an immersive symposium experience that can combat the depersonalization pervasive in modern medicine towards rediscovery of one's purpose. There is growing evidence that supports the introduction of humanities-based approaches into health care as a means of healing and rediscovery. The use of art will allow participants to express aspects of their personhood often difficult to articulate in everyday language. In doing so, this symposium will also focus on promoting a holistic approach that aligns personal and professional goals with emphasis on incorporating physical, mental, and emotional well-being through the tools of narrative medicine, restorative justice, and humanism towards healing. Moreover, unbeknownst tomany, physicians take part in medical humanities exercises daily as storytelling is the bloodline of health care. In medicine, we tell stories every day. Formally, in a language and format embedded into the mind's speech centers from the first days of medical school to informal decompression moments with colleagues. Thus, this symposium would awaken this muscle through the use of expert facilitators to guide attendees through individual and group exercises that all offer introspection toward one's professional identity by revealing how the art of storytelling can be used as a springboard to navigate purpose. Each attendee will craft a personal mission statement.