Narratives of Pain: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Adolescents/Young Adults with Sickle Cell Disease - Sara Peterson

This project came about with the awareness that patients with Sickle Cell Disease are too-often recipients of biased care and a personal interest in the intersection of medicine with healthcare biases/racist practices, disparities, and chronic pain. I hoped to use narrative medicine to further explore the experience of living with this disease and navigating the healthcare system through their eyes, with their own words. Hopefully their words will bring a more human side to their experiences, and help improve how healthcare providers treat this patient population in the future. 

Sara Peterson (she/her pronouns) is excited to be speaking today about her project: Narratives of Pain, completed through the Medical Humanities and Bioethics Pathway with mentor Dr. Jessica Shand. She is originally from a small farm town in southwestern Pennsylvania. She came to the University of Rochester in 2013 where she completed a BS in Neuroscience, then worked one year as an AmeriCorps VISTA promoting STEM programming and building community partnerships in Western NY.  In medical school, she has engaged in the Bioethics and Global Health Pathways, clinical research with various departments, served as the Vice President of the Class of 2022, pursued a Distinction in Community Health working to improve care for postpartum birthers in Monroe County, and was inducted into AOA. She will be starting her residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Cleveland Clinic Akron General this summer. 

The Healing Through the Arts & Humanities series is a collaboration of the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics, Eastman Performing Arts Medicine, and Rochester community organizations. These interactive presentations will demonstrate the many ways that arts support and improve the health and wellbeing of our community members. Past presentations can be viewed here. 

Register here: https://rochester.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vrg02AtoQ0ayr957dFzaVA