Pay Attention.
Be Astonished.
Tell about it.
The Written Word
Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program
The Power of Story
UW’s Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, generously supported by the John Peterson endowment, provides a yearly opportunity for all four HPM fellows and four faculty members from palliative medicine and adjacent fields to learn narrative writing skills together under the direction of award-winning novelist and editor Michelle Wildgen of Madison Writers’ Studio. Since its first run in 2016, this program has become a cornerstone of the fellowship’s well-being curriculum and provides participants with valuable experience in storytelling and creative writing over the course of eight months during the academic year.
Writing Our UW Story
Colloboration
My Life, My Story
Every Veteran has a story. Our mission is to help them tell it.
Since 2013, “My Life, My Story” has captured thousands of Veterans’ voices through personal interviews at VA Hospitals nationwide, turning their stories into brief life histories that live in their medical records. It’s a simple idea with real impact: when providers know who their patient is beyond the chart, everyone benefits.
writing together
Medical Writing Interest Group
Medical training threatens to swallow your identity whole — The Script exists to pull you back. Born from a shared enthusiasm for writing and the medical humanities, this semester showcase of student work is created and maintained by UW-SMPH students, for UW-SMPH students. Read, write, reckon — because your patients need a person on the other side of that white coat.
Student led
Vital Reads
Vital Reads is a student organization created within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health to serve all interested medical students. We aim to provide an opportunity for book lovers to socialize and engage in reading outside of the rigorous medical school environment. Vital Reads recognizes the importance of self-care and hopes to promote reading as an outlet for de-stressing and camaraderie.
Recreational Reading, Ebling Library
Included in our collection are popular non-fiction books on science or health topics, books of fiction and poetry with health themes or written by authors in the health field, and graphic medicine books.
Evidence shows that reading literature outside of work or coursework greatly impacts empathy and helps broaden one’s views, which has been demonstrated to enhance the health education experience as well as enhance patient care.
Writing Opportunities for UW-Madison Students
Dr. Norman Fost Award for the Best Medical Student Bioethics Essay
The Dr. Norman Fost Award for the Best Medical Student Bioethics Essay Contest — sponsored by the School of Medicine and Public Health and its Department of Medical History and Bioethics — invites medical students annually to critically examine an aspect of the field of bioethics that is relevant to their studies.
John J Frey, III, MD Writing Awards
The John J. Frey, III, MD Writing Awards recognize and honor creative writing by faculty, residents, fellows, FMIG students, and staff in the UW SMPH Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH), UW Health Family Medicine clinics, and those in our academic partner family medicine residency programs (Aurora, Gunderson, Waukesha, and WiNC). The awards are presented at the annual Farley-Frey event.
