This feature is part of the NBM Lab’s Alumni Spotlight Series where we highlight the work of learners in the Advanced Certificate in Narrative-Based Medicine.
Ross Carne is a neurologist, clinical neurophysiologist, and medical educator based in Melbourne, Australia. His work focuses on clinician wellbeing, mindfulness, and medical education, with a strong interest in how attention, story, and meaning shape clinical practice.
Ross’s engagement with narrative medicine grew out of sustained clinical work, particularly with patients living with epilepsy, where uncertainty, vulnerability, and the inner lives of both clinicians and patients are central to care. This interest led him into formal training in mindfulness, including certification in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and the Mindfulness in Medicine Program at the University of Rochester, and subsequently into narrative-based medicine as a complementary practice of attention and ethical listening.
Through this exploration in the field, Ross was introduced to the Narrative-Based Medicine Lab, where the work resonated deeply with his clinical experience, offering a structured and humane way of engaging with uncertainty rather than avoiding it. For Ross, the lab provided a disciplined practice of ethical listening and reflective attention that restores personhood through story, supports moral awareness, and creates collegial spaces where clinicians can be heard and seen.
As part of the lab’s Advanced Certificate, Ross developed his mentored advanced project: “Remembering intention, noticing beauty.” This was a series of writing workshops grounded in narrative-based medicine methods and designed specifically for senior clinicians.
The workshops were organized around seven themes: becoming, error, presence, shame, compassion, uncertainty, and beauty. Each session combined close reading of poetry and short texts, guided reflective writing, and small group sharing, with careful attention to psychological safety, inclusivity, and accessibility. A central aim of the project was to create a workshop series that could be delivered in healthcare settings without requiring prior writing experience.
Ross is currently preparing this project for delivery in more clinical contexts. He continues to design and facilitate clinician wellbeing initiatives, including Belonging in Medicine, and teaches mindfulness-based programs for medical students and practicing clinicians.
Narrative-based medicine remains central to Ross’ professional and creative practice as a sustaining approach that supports attentiveness, meaning, and connection in medicine. His recent writing has been accepted for publication in Pulse and the lab’s Case Repertory.