In the past two decades the new field of “Narrative Medicine” hasemerged from the meeting of medicine and the humanities.Narrative Medicine is the practice of listening for stories inhealthcare. Rita Charon, the field’s leading pioneer, explains thatNarrative Medicine responds to the need in healthcare for doctors(as well as nurses, social workers, physician assistants, and otherhealth care providers) to provide better care for patients, and tofacilitate new thinking about health and medicine. Charon states,“patients lament that their doctors don’t listen to them or thatthey seem indifferent to their suffering.” 1 Such neglect ofempathy, compassion, and forgetting of the internal life of thepatient itself suggests a need for healing and education throughnarration because “to be of clinical help requires that doctors enterthe worlds of their patients, if only imaginatively, and to see andinterpret these worlds from the patients’ point of view.” 2 Inresponse to this burgeoning interdisciplinary field, PediatricResearch is thus proud to announce a new category of article forpublication in the field of Narrative Medicine. We would like toprovide a forum for stories from physicians of their own personalexperiences that inspire us. Many of us are driven by the need toadvance care for our patients and we are emotionally attached totheir outcomes. Physicians and other health care works are usuallynot allowed to mourn in public. Yet, now with the crisis of Covid-19 taking center stage in our daily reports on the challengesconfronting health care, we hope that this forum will allow for notonly “Covid stories” to be shared, but also the many otherimportant narratives that emerge from our experiences as healthcare providers and patients. As we move forward out of this crisisand into routine care, we should not go back to business as usual.We should learn from this moment as we will benefit aspractitioners by listening to the stories of our patients and oneanother’s stories. Our goal is to inform and inspire readers, to offerauthors a place to share their sorrows and joys, and ultimately,through such creative expression of the healer’s bent, to foster thebest care we can for our patients.
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