25 May 2010
Creative writing helps medical students to examine ethics
Photo opportunity: 1-2pm on Monday, May 31st at Lecture Theatre 1, Ninewells Hospital. Hazel McHaffie will present competition winners with their prizes before delivering her talk.
Hazel McHaffie, author of a series of novels which consider moral choices relating to medical ethics, will next week visit the University of Dundee to deliver a talk and present prizes to the winners of a creative writing competition for medical students.
She will be at the Medical School, Ninewells Hospital, on Monday, May 31st to present winners of the University's 'Ethics and Humanistic Values Creative Writing Competition' with their awards. After doing so, she will give a brief talk on medical ethics and the creative writing process.
The Edinburgh-based writer is a former nurse and researcher of clinical ethics. Her fiction, for which she has received several awards, deal with topics relating to medical ethics including euthanasia and fertility treatment.
Dr Helen Manson, Lecturer in Medical Ethics at the University, said she was delighted to welcome Hazel McHaffie to Dundee.
'Hazel’s writing occupies a unique niche in that she incorporates controversial issues in medical ethics and law within fictional storylines,' she explained. 'This brings alive - and personalises - important societal issues that can often seem esoteric and complex, such as personal choices at the end of life, or moral dilemmas involved in caring for a loved one with dementia.
'This helps to put the reader into the shoes of people who are actually faced with these difficult issues, an important perspective for anyone trying to understand the ethical dilemmas of our time, including medical students and doctors.
'There are many examples of physicians who have become writers, such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Anton Chekhov. Clinicians write about medicine because it is an inherently fascinating field. Writing can also represent a form of reflection that helps clinicians to make sense of, and work through, often distressing or tricky subject matter.
'For medical learners, reading about patient and doctor experiences can be a valuable way in which to understand the true meaning of empathy and compassion, of learning the vital components to being a good doctor.
'The competition was designed to provide an opportunity for students to reflect on their experiences in medical school and to write creatively about their understanding of medical ethics and professionalism. The student response showed that many Dundee medical students have an emerging talent in creative writing and are interested in engaging in this form of expression.'
The event takes place at Ninewells Lecture Theatre 1 on Monday, May 31st between 1-2pm.
The competition was open to all medical students at the University, and attracted 21 entries - comprising 11 short stories, nine poems and one play. First prize of £500 went to Alasdair Forrest, while runners-up Elaine Renouf and Suzanne Watson received £100 each.
Three of the other entries, by students Rachel Pringle, Christopher Merrick and David Fraser, have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Medical Writers.
The winners will be reading extracts from their work before being presented with their prizes.
This is the first time that the School of Medicine has run such a competition and it aims to encourage personal reflection on clinical experiences to enhance the learning of ethics, professionalism and humanistic values.
The competition was sponsored by the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland.
The competition judges were: Dr Helen Manson, Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law at Dundee
University School of Medicine; Professor Kirsty Gunn, Head of Creative Writing at Dundee
University; Sue Roff, Centre for Medical Education, Dundee University; and Jim Killgore, Editor
of the Journal of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland. Professor Gunn stated, 'It is important that medical students can take advantage of a prize such as this in order to think in a more rounded, holistic way about the subject they study. Creative Writing is an intelligent, imaginative and responsible means by which our future doctors can extend and enlarge their life affirming work within the community.'
More information about Hazel McHaffie is available at www.hazelmchaffie.com/.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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