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CHAPTER 16 · Arts in Medicine

Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care

Hedy S. Wald, PhD · Rachel H. Kowalsky, MD, MPH, FACEP, FAAP

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Abstract

Narrative medicine is medicine practiced with the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories of others, as well as with a better understanding of our own stories as health professionals. It draws from and contributes to creative and reflective practice, cultivating empathy, resilience, and flourishing, optimizing patient care. In this chapter, we situate the field of narrative medicine within the health humanities, aligned with the recent call by the Association of American Medical Colleges for scholarly integration of the humanities into medical education. We describe how narrative medicine sessions serve as architecture accommodating forms of creativity and describe the benefits of this creative work for clinicians and patients. We discuss interactive, reflective writing, its relationship to creativity and curiosity, and formal analytic frameworks for the formative assessment of students’ writings. Finally, we discuss the state of knowledge about mechanisms by which creativity fosters empathy, resilience, and flourishing and reflect upon our experiences as clinicians and health humanities educators who draw deeply upon creativity in our work.

Keywords

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Cite this chapter

Chapter references below omit unverified page ranges and chapter-specific DOIs.

APA

Wald, H. S., & Kowalsky, R. H. (2026). Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care. In P. L. Pearl & S. Arfaie (Eds.), Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.

AMA

Wald HS, Kowalsky RH. Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, eds. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Vancouver

Wald HS, Kowalsky RH. Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, editors. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Chicago

Wald, Hedy S., and Rachel H. Kowalsky. “Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care.” In Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity, edited by Phillip L. Pearl and Saman Arfaie. Cambridge University Press, 2026.

BibTeX

@incollection{chapter16_2026,
  author = {Wald, Hedy S and Kowalsky, Rachel H},
  title = {Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care},
  booktitle = {Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity},
  editor = {Pearl, Phillip L. and Arfaie, Saman},
  publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
  year = {2026}
}

Harvard

Wald, H. S. and Kowalsky, R. H. (2026) “Narrative Medicine and Narrative Reflective Practice: Creativity for Empathy, Resilience, and Flourishing in the Service of Patient Care”, in Pearl, P.L. and Arfaie, S. (eds.) Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hedy S. Wald

Hedy S. Wald

PhD

Clinical Professor of Family Medicine; Faculty, Harvard Medical School Pediatric Leadership Program

Brown University · Harvard Medical School

Profile

Hedy S. Wald is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School and a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School Pediatric Leadership Program. With Rachel Kowalsky, she contributes a chapter on narrative medicine and narrative reflective practice, exploring how creativity can support empathy, resilience, and flourishing in the service of patient care.

Scholarship & professional background

Her scholarship examines reflective writing, narrative, professional identity formation, and the development of humanistic practice in health-professions education. Her published work on reflective writing treats it as a structured educational practice through which learners examine experience and deepen clinical understanding. She also contributes to international work on medicine, the Holocaust, and professional responsibility, connecting the humanities with the ethical formation of clinicians.

Educational distinction & selected research

Her distinctions include Brown’s Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Awards and Fulbright scholarship in medical education. She co-developed the REFLECT rubric, published in Academic Medicine, to assess reflective writing and guide individualized feedback. This work gives practical form to her interest in reflection, professional identity, and humanistic care.

Selected work & perspectives

Scholarship and professional biography · Brown UniversityBeyond the margins: reflective writing in medical educationREFLECT rubric: fostering and evaluating reflective capacity · Academic Medicine
Rachel H. Kowalsky

Rachel H. Kowalsky

MD, MPH, FACEP, FAAP

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medical Ethics; Lead for the Health Humanities

Weill Cornell Medicine

Profile

Rachel H. Kowalsky is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medical Ethics, and Lead for the Health Humanities at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is also Site Director for the NewYork-Presbyterian Emergency Medicine Residency’s Academic Practice Track in the Humanities. She holds a certificate in narrative medicine from Columbia University and is a Pushcart-nominated fiction writer and essayist. Her work explores how stories can deepen clinical care, medical education, and the lives of clinicians.

Scholarship & professional background

She completed undergraduate study at Brown University, medical and public-health degrees at Tufts University, pediatric residency at NewYork-Presbyterian, and fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine at New York University and Bellevue. Alongside clinical teaching, she develops narrative and humanities work that attends to patients’ and clinicians’ experiences. Her fiction won the New England Journal of Medicine’s inaugural medical fiction competition, an example of the literary practice that accompanies her academic work.

Selected work & perspectives

Writing and essaysNarrative Medicine: The Power of Shared Stories to Enhance Inclusive Clinical Care, Clinician Well-Being, and Medical EducationEducation and medical humanities · Weill Cornell MedicineMedical fiction award · Weill Cornell Medicine