The Conversation Hour for Doctors is a program created and facilitated by medical humanist, Celia Engel Bandman and clinical psychologist, Dr. Bernard Bandman using literature to bridge the cultures of science and the humanities—the crossroads where doctors and patients meet. The reason to use literature is threefold: to help doctors listen more discerningly to their patient’s stories; to heighten personal awareness by fostering the habit of self scrutiny; and the third concerns ethics — to enable doctors to think both critically and empathetically about moral issues and dilemmas in medicine.

We do not teach literature to doctors. What we do is select literature which explores both the doctor’s perspective of caring for patients and the patient’s experience of illness. The medical humanist, a writer, in her daily work with doctors and patients hears recurrent themes and selects a reading that speaks to an aspect of the human experience. The Conversation Hour allows doctors to voice their own experience and articulate the impact it has on decision-making in their work.

WHAT DOCTORS SAY

“The Conversation Hour has offered a unique opportunity to gain insight into the rarely discussed impact of medical interaction on the patient and doctor.  We have discussed what we find meaningful about our work, examined the patient-physician relationship, and looked outside technical literature into prose and poetry by patients and physicians for the humanistic perspective.  We have been given assignments: Write for ten minutes about our response when a patient asks us a question only God can answer. I can't quantify the benefit that accrues to my patients from my participation in this program but I would propose that the better grasp we have as providers possess on the complex interrelationship of patient and physician, the better outcomes in patient satisfaction, risk management, and physician burnout we might see.
Peter King, M.D.
Medical Director, VA Clinic/Vermont Veterans Home
Bennington, VT

The "Conversation Hour" as the monthly physician forum is called, gives us a supported chance to face the human challenges in our work, where we or our patients get stuck, and helps us then better identify these places so that we may be less stuck, and more useful.  There is generally a palpable sense of relief among participants at the end of each meeting, as we each address our own inner work in a constructive way. 
John Hearst, MD
Bennington Family Practice
Bennnington, VT