The Hidden Injuries of Medicine: Findings from Shame and Medicine Project

Shame is a powerful, often hidden force that shapes the everyday experiences of patients, medical students, and healthcare professionals. It can prevent patients from seeking care, worsen their experiences of illness, and influence how practitioners interact with patients and colleagues. In medical professionals, shame is closely connected to burnout, moral distress, mental health challenges, and even suicide.

The Shame and Medicine Project is a Wellcome Trust–funded interdisciplinary research project involving scholars from medicine, medical humanities, philosophy, social sciences, literary studies, and media studies at the University of Exeter and the University of Birmingham, working in partnership with our Core Clinical Collaborator at Children’s Health Ireland, Dublin to research the role of shame in various aspects of health and medicine, including clinical practice, patient experience and medical student education.

We are delighted to invite you to a very special one-off theatre production 'The Hidden Injuries of Medicine: Findings from the ', created in partnership with the Geese Theatre Company, at the Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, on Monday 8th June, 14.00 – 16.00.

This free interactive theatre production will bring our project’s findings vividly to life. Geese Theatre are pioneers in using theatre to illuminate complex emotional experiences, particularly those that are difficult to articulate in traditional academic or clinical contexts. Their expertise in translating sensitive research into powerful, participatory performances makes them an ideal partner for this work.

This unique production draws on our extensive qualitative dataset—currently the largest collection of specific experiences of shame in healthcare ever assembled. Through an engaging, immersive format, you will encounter real stories from patients, medical trainees, and practising clinicians as they navigate shame and other self‑conscious emotions in the context of receiving, providing, or training to provide medical care.

What will you gain?

• A deeper understanding of how shame operates within healthcare interactions and institutions.
• Insights into the emotional realities that shape clinical practice, professional identity, and patient experience.
• Practical resources and prompts to support reflection, discussion, policy development, and meaningful change.
• The opportunity to help shape an agenda for improving cultures of care and learning in medicine.

This is an in person event and will not be recorded. Spaces are limited so please only register if you can attend. If you have booked and can no longer attend, please email [email protected] to release your ticket.

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Host or Publisher Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health