My Life, My Story

Our PLP works to support the UMass Chan chapter of the student organization My Life, My Story (MLMS). MLMS is a narrative medicine program that was originally started within the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). The program aims to interview and write up first-person narratives for patients, and at UMass, our MLMS organization currently interviews patients who are hospitalized at the UMass University Campus Hospital 8th floor Oncology unit. After interviewing a patient, the student volunteer writes up a one-page narrative in the patient's own words and gives it to the patient for their own records. If desired, the patient can also have their narrative uploaded to their EHR chart so that their health care team can have an enhanced understanding of them as a patient, driving a more connected patient-health care team relationship. For the PLP, we are aiming to increase volunteer participation and assess student, trainee, and attending growth/satisfaction/burnout for this real-time patient care intervention.