A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down: Adding medical details to your story
by Ashley Holloway
Ask any medical professional who has watched an episode of the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy (2005) about the importance of accuracy when including a medical scene into a storyline and they will likely, first, roll their eyes; and second, tell you it’s integral. Adding medical details or a medical scenario to your story is an effective way to create a connection with the reader. After all, many of us have ourselves experienced a medical event, or at least know someone who has. However, there needs to be a purpose to it. Asking whether the medical scenario is part of the storyline or part of the background, and determining how it adds to the character or plot are important considerations. If you are not able to articulate this, consider leaving it out altogether.
Lisa Genova’s debut novel Still Alice (2007, iUniverse) is a brilliant depiction of what it might be like to live with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Now, given the author is herself a neuroscientist, this offers a clear advantage in the research department, however, you don’t need to be a neuroscientist to write a compelling medical scene. There are a few tips and tricks to make it easier though.
Know that, for the most part, your audience is most often lay people who aren’t likely going to be able to discern whether a character’s sterile technique was maintained throughout a procedure or not, or the intricacies of a particular surgery (Grey’s Anatomy is, after all, the longest-running scripted primetime show on ABC). With that said, medical terminology and jargon can help add realism to a scene. Being able to translate medical jargon into lay language, or vice versa, can help relay information that is important for setting up a scene, creating tension, or foreshadowing, and in exchanges of dialogue. Likewise, a good barometer for how an illness might feel or for conveying the appropriate amount of emotion is to ask yourself, WWID (translation: “what would I do if I were in this situation?”).
When someone is diagnosed with a disease or experiences a medical event, those around them are affected too. While leveraging your secondary characters is an effective method to help develop your storyline, create context, and add to the narrative, how your secondary characters cope with a medical scenario or react to a character who is diagnosed with an illness can influence the social narrative around it (see one of my previous articles for more on how not to be Disney).
Trauma is another familiar trope in literature today. Whether the trauma is a car accident, a gunshot wound, or intimate partner violence, it is integral to portray this accurately and with sensitivity. Online modules, such as these free training modules from Alberta Health Services are geared towards healthcare professionals; however, they offer information that can be helpful in several areas, such as in helping you accurately portray a character who has experienced a traumatic event. This information can also be helpful in offering insight into how healthcare providers should approach an individual who has experienced trauma.
Finally, although Western medicine dominates here in Canada and the US, there are many other forms of medicine practiced throughout the world. Depending on the context of your story, consider consulting a knowledge expert who has expertise in this area, or hiring a sensitivity reader to help bridge any knowledge gaps.
Here are a few more tools that could be helpful to you in infusing medical information and details into your writing:
Take a CPR course: This is a great, (relatively) inexpensive way to learn basic lifesaving techniques that can be used to inform your writing. A Standard First Aid course covers some basic systems knowledge and treatments as well as a typical emergency response to a situation (here’s my public service announcement moment where I advise everyone to take a CPR course regardless).
Know your anatomy: This resource provides detailed images of different anatomical structures with accompanying descriptions. This can help you align body structures with symptoms. And it’s pretty cool.
Health Education and Learning (HEAL): This Alberta Health Services website offers easy to understand and reliable information about common minor illnesses and injuries in children. This can be helpful in portraying symptoms of common illnesses in children.
Symptom checker: This Alberta Health website contains a symptom checker, which can be helpful for character development and foreshadowing.
Open Education Resources (OER) are a great resource for free textbooks; this particular textbook can offer step-by-step instructions and information into some of the “doing” part of medicine. This can be helpful for scenario/character development.
Medical simulation videos: Use YouTube to search for medical simulation videos; these can offer a snapshot into how a patient might present, team dynamics and communication in an emergency situation, and treatment. Use reputable channels, such as those belonging to a specific hospital or healthcare organization; the video descriptions offer information on whether the scenario demonstrates positive or negative behaviours/interventions.
About the Author:
Self-proclaimed logophile and devourer of books, Ashley Holloway is a nurse, writer, and editor who teaches writing classes and healthcare leadership in Calgary, AB. She writes in a variety of genres with work appearing across Canada and the US and has co-authored three books. Ashley serves as Editorial Director at Unleash Creatives and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.