Literature & Medicine

Humanities at the heart of healthcare

Nevada Humanities, in partnership with the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System, is part of the national Literature & Medicine program. This program provides an opportunity for the humanities to serve the people of the state by improving of health care. The National Endowment for the Humanities recently provided a major grant to extend Literature & Medicine to VA hospitals in fifteen states, including Nevada. The impact of Literature & Medicine is very significant for the participants from VA facilities, where work and stress loads have been both changed and increased by the influx of severely wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq, and where their patients often face particularly severe physical and psychological wounds.

"These discussions have significantly reordered how I think about medicine."

"The seminars helped foster communication across the hierarchy of medical culture, which was great and much needed."

"Surgeons commune with nurses from our long-term care facility; secretaries speak with equal voice to administrators; laboratory technicians give their viewpoint to obstetricians. In short, [Literature & Medicine] has greatly improved communications among participating employees, and has also improved communications with patients."