Luna Serou is a PhD student in public health and social epidemiology at the Institute of Global Health (ASU-GHI). Affiliated with the Pierre Louis Doctoral School of Epidemiology and Public Health (ED393) within the ESSMA unit, she is conducting her PhD research under the supervision of Jean-Sébastien Cadwallader (Sorbonne University) and Isabelle Galichon (Bordeaux Montaigne University).

Her work focuses on the integration of narrative medicine into the training of medical interns in France. For over a century, the biomedical model has established itself as the dominant framework for healthcare training, relegating patients’ subjective experiences to the background. In this context, the relational and communicational dimensions of care have long been marginalised. The World Health Organisation, however, advocates an educational approach centred on the patient, the relationship and communication. It is becoming essential to give a voice back to patients, by focusing on their lived experiences, beyond clinical signs. The integration of this human dimension means that illness is no longer viewed as a mere diagnosis, but as a life-changing experience. The emergence of the biopsychosocial model has thus helped to challenge this hegemony, by seeking to bridge the relational gap between healthcare providers and patients. It is within this shift towards a renewed openness to subjectivity that the medical humanities are gradually finding their place.

Narrative medicine thus emerges as a transformative response to these healthcare challenges. Originally developed at Columbia University, it is establishing itself as a catalyst for change in medical practice. By drawing on a methodology inspired by literary practices, narrative medicine aims to enhance healthcare professionals’ capacity for attentiveness, interpretation and self-reflection.

This approach helps to restore the narrative to the heart of the clinical relationship, by renewing the ways in which healthcare professionals listen and engage with patient care. The discipline is now gradually developing in France, through various academic and hospital-based initiatives. Assessing its effects on junior doctors is a key priority, through the analysis of the processes by which narrative skills are received, internalised and applied.

As a result, Luna is conducting an exploratory sequential study involving paediatric trainees in Bordeaux (University Hospital) and general practice trainees in Paris (Sorbonne University), where narrative medicine workshops are organised, combining readings, reflective writing and group discussions. These initiatives serve both as an educational tool and a prime field of observation, offering the opportunity to explore how trainees mobilise and reinterpret their professional culture, which is based on shared meanings.

This research also aims to assess changes – before and after the programme – in feelings of empathy, as well as perceptions of skills such as tolerance of ambiguity and complexity, creativity, imagination and attention to language. The aim is to examine how narrative medicine shapes the professional identity of interns, contributes to the development of their care skills and impacts their well-being throughout their training.

In line with the missions of the Institute of Global Health, which is committed to equity and access to care, Luna’s thesis seeks to strengthen a form of medicine that is attentive to vulnerabilities, by promoting professional practices that are both sustainable and people-centred, for the benefit of both healthcare providers and patients.