Taking the Reins: A Message from Becca
Rebecca Omlor
It is my honor and privilege to take the wonderful work Colleen started and continue the mission of #MedHumChat by providing a space where anyone and everyone can immerse themselves in and discuss the arts leading to each person coming out with a different perspective or view. Though I have been part of #MedHumChat since the very first discussion Colleen Farrell led in 2019, I have always tried to intertwine humanities and narrative medicine with my professional identity.
As an attending in Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Wake Forest, I have the joy of teaching narrative medicine as part of the core curriculum for our fellows. I am also thankful to have an incredibly supportive boss and work family who allow me the time to learn more about narrative medicine through the Columbia University Certificate of Achievement Program in Narrative Medicine.
One of my first experiences with medicine was through my dad, an ICU nurse. When he talked about his patients, he would tell me about the man who loved baseball so he made sure the World Series was on in his room. Or the woman who loved “The Young and the Restless” so my dad would talk to her about the show while providing care. These people were too sick to respond, and the practice my dad took was based in the belief that they could still hear and sense him even without being able to show it.
Little did I know that years later, I would rotate through a local hospice facility as a third-year medical student and realize that there was an entire specialty who held the same practice of medicine that my dad had taught me. At the end of medical school, I did a 4-week elective in narrative medicine. I have always loved losing myself in the arts, of any kind, and this course gave me four weeks before graduating medical school to soak up paintings, plays, musicals, dance, poetry, and prose. Through arts and literature, I found another way to emulate the qualities I think are most important for me as a physician.
“I saw so much passion for using the arts to explore some of the most difficult topics in not only medicine but society as a whole.”
#MedHumChat has always thrived on input from the community, allowing everyone to come together as equals sharing and learning from our unique life experiences. When I read the responses to our New Year’s reflection chat on January 6th, I saw so much passion for using the arts to explore some of the most difficult topics in not only medicine but society as a whole. There were requests to talk about ageism, ableism, diagnostic limbo, and diagnostic uncertainty. On a systemic level, there were calls for evaluating power and injustice, health disparities, biases, and the voices of disadvantaged groups. And then there were the themes related to the emotions many of us have faced on a more profound level this last year – hope, grief, trauma, and forgiveness. It’s clear we have our work cut out for us, and I am honored to elevate these topics and the voices they represent.
I am more thankful than I can put into words to be able to share one of my greatest passions with others through the #MedHumChat community. I am especially thankful for the team that helps keep this chat running seamlessly and those who continue to come back every first and third Wednesday to provide their voice and perspective to each chat. I will continue to strive for #MedHumChat to be an open and inclusive community where respectful listening and thoughtful dialogue about a wide range of themes is upheld. As director, I hope to bring the same level of person-centeredness that my dad taught me as a lifelong lesson in caring for other people.