The Patient: A Symposium, Bucknell University, October 18 & 19, 2006

Precariously situated between home and hospital,=20
work and bed, life and death, the patient=20
occupies a liminal, unstable position. Charged=20
to identify with her state as with the moral=20
virtue from which she receives her name, the=20
patient also lives in the fear of our=20
indifference and impatience. Although attended=20
by doctors, nurses, family and friends, her=20
condition - particularly if it is chronic - ever=20
threatens to sever her connections with the world=20
and to exile her into that fundamental solitude=20
owned by the sick and suffering.

Immersed within a society and medical system that=20
seeks optimum outcomes linked to zero errors, the=20
patient receives care delivered with industrial=20
efficiency. Advances in diagnostic and=20
therapeutic modalities provide both cure and=20
control of chronic illness not imagined a decade=20
ago. Poised to benefit on multiple fronts, she=20
should be increasingly satisfied with the medical=20
encounter; and yet, many patients feel alienated=20
or even violated by the efficiency of the medical=20
system. What defines a quality medical encounter=20
from her perspective? What do medical=20
practitioners - nurses, physicians, social=20
workers - value in their relationship with the=20
patient? How is this relationship preserved and=20
nurtured? What are the opportunities or perils=20
in the physician-patient relationship?

It seems timely to counteract the quantification=20
of the patient by the health care industry and to=20
call for a humanistic reconstitution of the=20
patient's experience and situation, to=20
reconsider, rethink, and emphatically re-imagine=20
the patient in her environments, ancient and=20
contemporary, intimate and social. Papers written=20
from a humanistic or medical perspective=20
addressing the following topics are invited:

- the patient in literary contexts
- the patient in film
- the dying patient
- the patience of the patient
- the patient and communication
- the ill and the well
- the chronic patient
- the quality medical encounter from the perspective of the patient
- patient satisfaction
- the quality medical encounter from the perspective of the physician
- physician satisfaction

Submit one page abstracts and a short CV by=20
January 31, 2006. The symposium will be held on=20
the campus of Bucknell University, October 18 and=20
19, 2006. A selection of papers will be=20
published by Aper=E7us: Histories, Texts, Cultures.

Harold Schweizer, Chair Michael Foltzer, MD
Department of English Geisinger Medical Center
Bucknell University 100 N Academy MC21-11
Lewisburg, PA 17837 Danville, PA 17822
schweizr_at_bucknell.edu mafoltzer_at_geisinger.edu

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Received on Fri Sep 16 2005 - 11:12:25 EDT