Emergency medicine narratives: a systematic discussion of definition and utility.

Abstract

A substantial number of emergency medicine providers are publishing stories and other creative expressions related to their medical experiences. This is a systematic review of such publications, introduces the term "emergency medicine narratives" to describe such pieces, and proposes a framework to classify the various forms of expression. Specifically, six genres of emergency medicine narratives are discussed: medical autobiography, clinical narratives, creative narratives, out-of-hospital narratives, lay exposition, and photojournalism. This review explores the utility of these narratives and the role they play within the field of emergency medicine, provides a bibliography of emergency narratives, and suggests future questions that might be addressed regarding this growing phenomenon in the field of emergency medicine.