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> >From: Harold Schweizer <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: CFP: The Patient (1/31/06; 10/18/06-10/19/06) > >The Patient: A Symposium, Bucknell University, October 18 & 19, 2006 > >Precariously situated between home and hospital,=20 >work and bed, life and death, the patient=20 >occupies a liminal, unstable position. Charged=20 >to identify with her state as with the moral=20 >virtue from which she receives her name, the=20 >patient also lives in the fear of our=20 >indifference and impatience. Although attended=20 >by doctors, nurses, family and friends, her=20 >condition - particularly if it is chronic - ever=20 >threatens to sever her connections with the world=20 >and to exile her into that fundamental solitude=20 >owned by the sick and suffering. > >Immersed within a society and medical system that=20 >seeks optimum outcomes linked to zero errors, the=20 >patient receives care delivered with industrial=20 >efficiency. Advances in diagnostic and=20 >therapeutic modalities provide both cure and=20 >control of chronic illness not imagined a decade=20 >ago. Poised to benefit on multiple fronts, she=20 >should be increasingly satisfied with the medical=20 >encounter; and yet, many patients feel alienated=20 >or even violated by the efficiency of the medical=20 >system. What defines a quality medical encounter=20 >from her perspective? What do medical=20 >practitioners - nurses, physicians, social=20 >workers - value in their relationship with the=20 >patient? How is this relationship preserved and=20 >nurtured? What are the opportunities or perils=20 >in the physician-patient relationship? > >It seems timely to counteract the quantification=20 >of the patient by the health care industry and to=20 >call for a humanistic reconstitution of the=20 >patient's experience and situation, to=20 >reconsider, rethink, and emphatically re-imagine=20 >the patient in her environments, ancient and=20 >contemporary, intimate and social. Papers written=20 >from a humanistic or medical perspective=20 >addressing the following topics are invited: > >- the patient in literary contexts >- the patient in film >- the dying patient >- the patience of the patient >- the patient and communication >- the ill and the well >- the chronic patient >- the quality medical encounter from the perspective of the patient >- patient satisfaction >- the quality medical encounter from the perspective of the physician >- physician satisfaction > >Submit one page abstracts and a short CV by=20 >January 31, 2006. The symposium will be held on=20 >the campus of Bucknell University, October 18 and=20 >19, 2006. A selection of papers will be=20 >published by Aper=E7us: Histories, Texts, Cultures. > >Harold Schweizer, Chair Michael Foltzer, MD >Department of English Geisinger Medical Center >Bucknell University 100 N Academy MC21-11 >Lewisburg, PA 17837 Danville, PA 17822 >[log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] > > ******************* The German Studies Call for Papers List Editor: Stefani Engelstein Assistant Editor: Megan McKinstry Sponsored by the University of Missouri Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html