By Lori Berkey, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury –Shrewsbury resident Scott Alderman proclaims himself “a civilian,” neither a clinician nor an academic. He’s a man with passion for bringing people together from different disciplines and helping them use unique tools to better understand each other, communicate better and work better as a team. He is the founder and executive director of the Center for Narrative Practice.
Alderman’s interest in narrative practice developed during his tenure at Colombia University, where he served as the administrative director for the Program in Narrative Medicine. It was there that he witnessed the challenges of inter-professional and inter-disciplinary education and saw how vitally this pertained to medical education. That program held workshops aimed at shrinking the divide.
According to Alderman, applications of narrative practice include the use of close reading and creative writing, as well as the use of narrative examples such as cartooning, art, music and dance.
“The tools of narrative practice improve communication, break down silos and build teams, and provide avenues for self-care and reflection,” he said.
After noticing the success of the tactics in the microcosm of academia, Alderman was drawn to launch his own program that could serve a broader realm. He recognized that the narrative tools applied to all fields and disciplines, and he set up a new center in Boston.
“The Center is designed to exist outside academia, and to provide a truly interdisciplinary approach to education,” Alderman said, “Our independence gives us room to be innovative, nimble, and effective.”
His Center for Narrative Practice kicked off its first low residency certificate program last year. The nine-month program features a two-week session in Boston, two semesters of live online courses, and the offering of continuing medical education credit. Alderman reported that half of the 16 students enrolled were directly involved in healthcare.
The first part of the program entailed an introduction of narrative practice tools which were woven with themes of disability, trauma studies, and ethics to deliver a unique learning opportunity.
“The physicians who attended the certificate would tell you that it was studying with people outside of healthcare [that] was invaluable to broadening their view of story, narrative, and representation,” Alderman said.
Per Alderman, two of the participants in their first program were at drastically different stages of their career. One was a psychiatrist who was tasked with starting a humanities track at a university, and another was a pre-med student who was feeling unprepared to begin medical school in the program to which he had been accepted.
“There are not many academic situations where a senior clinician and a pre-med student can study, learn and connect on equal ground,” Alderman said, “But with the tools and methods of narrative practice at the hub, everyone is learning and engaged.”
Alderman was pleased with the outcome. The Center provided utensils, a system and support for the track the psychiatrist developed, along with a transformative experience of studying with people outside her field. The med-school student, he added, saw how the certificate program could give him a perspective that would boost his readiness to begin his medical education.
As for goals for the future, Alderman said the Center is looking for partnerships that will allow them to broaden their scope and reach. They are currently developing specialty narrative workshops for 2017 in ethics, chaplaincy and cartooning, as well as developing team building initiatives to foster positive collaborations between the disciplines of medicine, nursing, dental, social work, public health, and physician assistant.
Alderman believes the Center’s tools and methods are not only effective for team building in healthcare settings, but that can be applied to any organization. The divide between sales, operations, human resources and administration in business are as deep as those in healthcare, he added.
As an innovator, Alderman is thrilled that the center is up and running.
“I love starting things,” he said, “I like having a notion that turns into an idea that becomes something real. The Center was my idea, and it gives me great satisfaction to see it take root.”