Project Designation: SHARE – Health and Humanities Acting Together
Funding Entity: FCT- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. Ref.ª PTDC/LLT-OUT/29231/2017
Principal Researcher: Isabel Fernandes
Co-responsible: Maria de Jesus Cabral
Research Unit: ULICES
Partners: School of Pharmacy ULisboa (FFUL); School of Medicine ULisboa (FMUL); School of Psychology ULisboa (FPUL); Institute of Social and Political Sciences, ULisboa; School of Nursing, Lisbon (ESEL); Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal; Centre for Humanities (CHAM), U NOVA Lisboa; School of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH), U NOVA Lisboa; King’s College London; U Paris-Déscartes; U Strasburg; Fondazione ISTUD, Milan.
Duration: 4 June 2017 – 3 June 2022
Funding: Euro 238.022,60
Webpage: https://humanidadesmedicas.letras.ulisboa.pt/en/share
Overall description:
Positioned within the emerging movement of Medical Humanities (MH), SHARE built on the Project in Narrative & Medicine, launched in 2009, and pursued by the FCT-funded project “N&M – Narrative & Medicine: (con)texts and practices across disciplines” (2013-15). SHARE aimed to 1) carry out reflective work on theoretical and epistemological questions, particularly in regard to the frontiers and contiguities between MH and Narrative Medicine (NM), and to the place and nature of the concept of narrative when used in a clinical context and a pathographical register; 2) develop fieldwork and disseminate it; 3) strengthen and diversify the postgraduate curricular unit in NM (created in 2012); 4) facilitate the transfer of acquired knowledge to applied practices involving patients, trainers, carers, and healthcare professionals; 5) divulge the results obtained from research on a regular basis. Some of these aims were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic: fieldwork activities involving patients’ groups and healthcare providers had to be scaled down, missions were cancelled, and the international conference “Caring & Sharing” happened later than planned. However, initiatives such as the NM COVID Kit were developed in response to demand from a group of healthcare professionals. As acknowledged by the FCT evaluation panel, despite external constraints, “the core aims of SHARE were fulfilled: to produce research in epistemological and ethical issues; to develop fieldwork involving healthcare professionals and patients; to promote dissemination actions both in academic context and within informal groups. The number of international publications (books, chapters, papers) should be emphasized, as well as pedagogical initiatives, namely regular and intensive courses created in medical and nursing schools; a significant number of lectures, seminars and workshops took also place in several countries, for varied publics.”
