We host a review by Stefania Polvani on the book “Narrative Medicine. Bridging the Gap between Evidence-Based Care and Medical Humanities” by Maria Giulia Marini. Stefania Polvani is sociologist at USL Centro Toscana (Tuscany, Italy), SIMeN (Italian Society of Narrative Medicine) elected president, and takes part to OMNI (Italian Observatory of Narrative Medicine) scientific committee.
May a book influence health? A brave, positive answer arrives from “Narrative Medicine. Bridging the Gap Between Evidence-Based Care and Medical Humanities”, by Maria Giulia Marini, published by Springer in a prestigious graphic design, written in English. A book straight to the heart of the question: intervening on well-being, working with disease and illness narrative. For this reason, the book has a high value for the contents, and the merit to spread Narrative Medicine out of circumscribed environments, potentially communicating with anybody, in Italy and worldwide.
What characterizes this book respect to other Narrative Medicine works published in our country in the last years, is the faceting of points of view on this argument. So every chapter can be considered an independent work, and be read separately from others, and the reader – healthcare professional, citizen, or patient – can choose to linger on the relationship between Narrative-Based or Evidence-Based Medicine, on Mythology and care, and on central themes such as empathy, communication, and personalization of assistance.
The book develops letting patients and caregivers narrate through a selection of stories so different, but at the same time intersected between them by the common power of experiences. It is very appreciated the fact that the publication is permeate and enriched by the experience of the Master in Applied Narrative Medicine of ISTUD Foundation – of which Marini is the director – which is to date the main maker of education pathways for Narrative Medicine providers in Italy.
“Narrative Medicine. Bridging the Gap between Evidence-Based Care and Medical Humanities” is an unique work for the analysis of the sustainability of an humanistic approach, an original reflection in a Evidence-Based Medicine era, but promising value results in relation either to needs and patients’ rights, and to healthcare organizations.
We wish this book will be read by patients, caregivers, doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and by all care professionals as a facilitator, in John Launer’s words, of the reunification of the fragmented parts of care.