Doctor and Self Preservation Advocate
About this episode
Dr. Laura Vater discusses the intersection of writing, mental health, and advocacy in medicine.
In this episode of Our Voices, Our Future , we sit down with Dr. Laura Vater, a medical oncologist, writer, assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and Director of Compassionate Medical Education at the Hippocratic Collective, to explore how writing can serve as both reflection and advocacy within medicine. During this episode we talk about how storytelling can be used as a powerful tool to address mental health stigma in the medical field, the process of finding one’s voice as a clinician-writer, and the ways Dr. Vater balances evidence-based medicine with personal narrative. We also discuss the response from the broader medical community to open conversations about humanism and mental health, and what advice she offers to trainees and clinicians who want to use writing as a form of advocacy but may feel hesitant to speak up. To learn more about Dr. Laura Vater and her work, you can visit her website: Lauravater.com You can also reach out to Dr. Laura Vater via email: doclauravater@gmail.com You can find more information about the work AMWA’s Advocacy Committee has done and how to join their efforts here: https://www.amwa-doc.org/our-work/advocacy/ You…
People in this episode
Hosts: Meghan Etsey, Rhea Manohar, Meenu Immaneni, Laura Uricoechea
Guest: Dr. Laura Vater
Topics covered
- mental health
- storytelling
- medical education
- advocacy
- clinician-writer
- humanism
Keywords
- mental health stigma
- storytelling
- evidence-based medicine
- clinician-writer
- advocacy
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Indiana University School of Medicine, Hippocratic Collective, AMWA, AMWA’s Advocacy Committee, AMWA’s Gender Equity Task Force
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