Pre-Health Training Materials

The goal of the following workshop is to challenge pre-health undergraduate and graduate students explore the implications of having a rare disease. Our hope is that this will help students be more compassionate and understanding in their future interactions with patients and families affected by a rare disease.

Overview

This activity is inspired by Christine Miserandino’s The Spoon Theory, a piece where she attempts to describe to a friend what it’s like to live with Lupus, a chronic autoimmune illness. She uses spoons from around the diner that they were eating in to represent units of energy. Most healthy people have a seemingly unlimited number of spoons (barely depleted by daily tasks) which can be easily replenished by rest at night. However, chronic illness patients have a limited number of extra spoons to “spend” on non-necessary tasks because a great majority of their spoons are taken up by various symptoms, as well as treatments, doctor’s appointments, and other tasks which healthy people do not normally have to do. Through this interactive exercise, participants will learn what it means to live with a limited amount of energy (or “spoons”).

Materials

Access the materials needed to complete the workshop by clicking on the appropriate images below.

Pre-Reading

materials for students to prepare for the workshop

Workshop

a workshop activity for undergraduate or graduate pre-health students

Intstructor Notes

for implementing the workshop and leading discussion