Narrative Medicine: A Concise Study of its Relevance and Necessity in Singapore

We decided to make a scrapbook that would take its readers through an understanding of narrative medicine. The former is a skill (we believe) that conflates literary techniques of breaking down a narrative, with the hard science that medicine considers it to be. Narrative Medicine creates an ease in discerning the parts of a patient’s narrative so that a physician would be better able to understand and thereby diagnose their symptoms. We have found that this does not only apply to physicians but can be used in all aspects of life that require an empathetic ear. In Singapore, there definitely could be more of an awareness of this topic which would bring about many benefits to society as a whole.

In creating a scrapbook to explain narrative medicine, the organic, rustic structure of the book is a huge contrast to the almost clinical discourse that narrative medicine makes. Having the explanations fleshed out in scrapbook form takes away from jargon that the average person might consider narrative medicine to be and it makes the topic a lot more palatable and relatable even.