CFP: Teaching writing in the health professions
ten grrl
We are excited to announce the SECOND annual conference on teaching writing in the health professions, which again, will be fully online and free of charge.
Proposals are due on April 1.
The conference will be held on June 2.
Any questions can be directed to me (michael...@asu.edu).
Sincerely,
Michael
**
The SECOND Annual Conference on Teaching Writing in the Health Professions
Sponsored by Arizona State University
Fully online and free of charge
June 2, 2023 (Friday)
As the burden on healthcare systems grows heavier, countries around the globe face alarming shortages of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and allied health professionals, who include physician assistants, occupational therapists, and emergency medical technicians. On the whole, the world is facing a shortfall of 18 million health professionals, with rural regions and low- and middle-income countries hit the hardest [1]. As a partial response, workforce challenges have been repeatedly highlighted by the World Health Assembly, which instituted the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife in 2020 and the International Year of Health and Care Workers in 2021, calling greater attention to the training of health professionals [2,3].
What is often unacknowledged in this training is the importance of writing: health professionals need to learn a variety of written genres while in the classroom or on the job—and often produce them under tight constraints. Significantly, writing in these contexts is not just about the writing, meaning the textual artifact and its process of production. It is also about the writer, and the benefits to the writer are legion. Indeed, writing can foster empathy, reflective practice, critical thinking, collaborative learning, patient education skills, leadership, cultural competence, and clinical judgment. Some evidence suggests that writing can also assuage burnout, a major challenge in the health professions [4].
Responding to these exigencies, the inaugural Conference on Teaching Writing in the Health Professions, held last year, attracted more than 200 registered attendees from six countries. Building on that success, we will virtually convene again this June.
We call together presenters from across disciplines to share their instructional insights and research in progress, drawing on the spirit of interprofessional education. We invite 15- minute presentations on any aspect of clinical writing, scholarly writing, reflective writing, or public writing in the health professions. Specific topics may include assignment design, curriculum development, program management, feedback practices, needs assessments, professional identity formation, the health humanities, educational psychology, or educational research methods. We especially welcome presentations that address health literacy, and there will be networking opportunities for those interested in research collaborations across institutions.
Send 300-word proposals to WIHPcon...@gmail.com by April 1. Please use the subject line “Conference paper submission.”
References
1. World Health Organization. Global
Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030. Geneva,
Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2016.
https://www.who.int/hrh/resources/global_strategy_workforce2030_14_print.pdf.
2. World Health Organization. State of the World’s Nursing 2020: Investing
in Education, Jobs and Leadership. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health
Organization; 2020:
https://www.who.int/publications-detail/nursing-report-2020.
3. World Health Organization. Year of Health and Care Workers 2021.
World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/campaigns/annual theme/year-of-health-and-care-workers-2021.
Published 2021.
4. Madson MJ, ed. Teaching Writing in the Health Professions. Routledge;
2021.