Creative Writing for Health Care Professionals, Quinnipiac University

Everyone has a story to tell. In this course, students can express themselves by writing creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry. Creative writing is any writing in which the purpose is to express thoughts, feelings and emotions rather than to simply convey information. Examples of creative writing include poetry, fiction, nonfiction or personal essays, memoirs and plays. The elements and techniques of creative writing include: action, character, conflict, dialogue, genre, narration, pace, plot, metaphors and similes, and imaginative language. The language of creative writing makes use of imagery, dialogue and concrete details familiar to the reader to evoke an emotional response. In this selective course, students learn to use the techniques of creative writing to let their voice and emotions be heard on the page. Health care is considered in its broadest context to refer to illness, loss, healing and well-being. This is a subject everyone can relate to, either from personal events or through imagination. Students read and discuss writings of Richard Selzer, William Carlos Williams, Oliver Sacks, Lauren Slater, Marta Traba and other authors to introduce a wide range of issues related to creative writing and health care. Elective only. Students may also undertake a Capstone project in the Medical Humanities, as part of the four-year Scholarly Reflection and Concentration/Capstone. For more information, see https://www.qu.edu/schools/medicine/programs/medical-doctor-degree/md/curriculum/scholarly-reflection-and-concentration-capstone-course/. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.