Abstract
Education in the medical humanities and ethics is an integral part of the formation of future physicians. This article reports on an innovative approach to incorporating the medical humanities and ethics into the four-year curriculum in a Certificate Program spanning all four years of the medical school experience. The faculty of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston conceived and implemented this program to teach medical students a range of scholarly topics in the medical humanities and to engage the full human experience into the process of becoming a physician. This study follows six years of experience, and we report student experiences and learning in their own words.
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Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the faculty at the Center for help with conceptualization of the program and assistance with the many details involved in running this program, as well as comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares that the author has no conflict of interest.
Funding
Funding for the Medical Humanities and Ethics Certificate Program was generously provided by an endowment from the John P. McGovern Foundation.
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1 http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/ We define the term "medical humanities" broadly to include an interdisciplinary field of humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and the arts (literature, theater, film, and visual arts) and their application to medical education and practice.
2 http://medschool.ucsf.edu/aoc/humanities/mission.aspx For the purposes of this program, we define "humanities" quite broadly to include traditional fields (literature, rhetoric, philosophy, religious studies, ethics and history, for example); creative writing and the arts (visual, theater, media); as well as the humanities-oriented social sciences (anthropology, sociology, for example).
3We did not keep track of ethnic, racial, sexual orientation, or other demographic categories. Our students came from a broad geographic range – from all over the United States, Russia, Australia, Africa (Kenya), the middle east (Turkey), Asia (India, Pakistan), Europe (France) and Central America (Guatemala). They also came from diverse perspectives with formal training in the biological and physical sciences, drama, music, literature, social sciences, business, and engineering. We try to be open to everyone who wishes to join the Program.
4Because some students took a year off for personal reasons our graduation rate is slightly higher than indicated by these numbers. Of the students who dropped out of the program most withdrew for personal reasons including time constraints due to the need to care for younger siblings, serious illness of their own or family members, or academic difficulties necessitating additional focus on basic sciences. The three students who withdrew during their fourth year all cited an inability to complete the required Medical Humanities elective and also complete an out of town rotation required for their desired residency.
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Erwin, C.J. Development of a Medical Humanities and Ethics Certificate Program in Texas. J Med Humanit 35, 389–403 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-014-9306-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-014-9306-4