From Kafka to Casualty: doctors and medicine in popular culture and the arts— a special studies module

Glasser, Brian; Clark, Michael; Greenhalgh, Trisha; Harmar-Brown, Christine; Leach, John; Modell, Michael; Salinsky, John

doi:10.1136/mh.27.2.99

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…On a related note, the scope of ‘culture’ itself, even in Western terms, could do with some expansion. While certain individuals, for example, Brian Glasser in his course ‘From Kafka to Casualty ’, are considering the role of popular culture (ie, the British television show Casualty ) in “fostering lay views of doctors and medicine”,54 this move remains innovative rather than the rule. Moreover, it has not, to our knowledge, been extended towards cross-cultural understandings of the ‘lay person’ that medical professionals may encounter in an increasingly globalised world—for example, comparing the Western ‘medical soap’ with the many depictions of medical professionals proffered in the extremely popular East Asian genre of the television soap.…”

Section: Understanding Difference: Patient Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Medical humanities as expressive of Western culture

Hooker

Noonan

2011

Med Humanities

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In this paper we articulate a growing awareness within the field of the ways in which medical humanities could be deemed expressive of Western cultural values. The authors suggest that medical humanities is culturally limited by a pedagogical and scholarly emphasis on Western cultural artefacts, as well as a tendency to enact an uncritical reliance upon foundational concepts (such as 'patient' and 'experience') within Western medicine. Both these tendencies within the field, we suggest, are underpinned by a humanistic emphasis on appreciative or receptive encounters with 'difference' among patients that may unwittingly contribute to the marginalisation of some patients and healthcare workers. While cultural difference should be acknowledged as a central preoccupation of medical humanities, we argue that the discipline must continue to expand its scholarly and critical engagements with processes of Othering in biomedicine. We suggest that such improvements are necessary in order to reflect the cultural diversification of medical humanities students, and the geographical expansion of the discipline within non-Western and/or nonAnglophone locations.It is our contention that, whatever may be the excellent intentions of its founders and practitioners, medical humanities as a field has often been strongly, though not wholly, reflective of the traditions of Western (Anglo-American and European) culture, particularly what used to be referred to as 'high' culture 1 . In this essay we outline the grounds for this perhaps provocative statement, and explore some of its implications for the field. These include the possibility that what constitutes 'the medical humanities' could differ profoundly from place to place, particularly in the developing world. A second concern is that since Western cultural traditions embody certain ideas about selfhood, patienthood, illness and medical care, the dominance of these traditions may exclude important ways of knowing and being for both Western and non-Western patients and doctors.This paper contributes to the recent communal conversations that have, of late, marked the success and expansion of the medical humanities [2][3][4][5] . The field is clearly in the process of significant changechange that is generational, pedagogical, and scholastic. Soul-searching is common to this phase of development. Our own soul-searching was initially prompted by one of us (CH) being privileged to

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Section: Understanding Difference: Patient Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Medical humanities as expressive of Western culture

Hooker

Noonan

2011

Med Humanities

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“…(Interview 11) were important to the interviewees, and their self-presentation was seen to ''convince other people that they belong there'' (Interview 15). These issues are considered both in this way, 26 and from a broader, spiritual perspective, 27 within the Medical Humanities literature, the latter of which was notably absent from the interview sample.…”

Section: Intellectual Exercisementioning

confidence: 99%

A silly expression: Consultants’ implicit and explicit understanding of Medical Humanities. A qualitative analysis

Knight

2006

Med Humanities

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The term Medical Humanities has still not been established in the wider medical, educational and academic communities. This qualitative study, conducted across three acute care trusts, is an exploration of whether clinicians were familiar with the term Medical Humanities, and if so, what the term meant to them and whether they considered the associated concepts relevant to medical practice and education. Reactions to the term Medical Humanities were varied: many clinicians had not heard of the term before, some were unsure what it meant, others displayed mistrust or contempt for it. Explicit definitions that were elicited were categorised (inductively) according to three main approaches to the understanding of Medical Humanities: Humanistic-holistic, Humanities-medicine seperate and Intellectual exercise. Findings indicate that the lack of clarity about the term Medical Humanities among experienced healthcare professionals, contrasts with their sophisticated implicit knowledge of key issues frequently associated with Medical Humanities. Thus, while some clinicians could not define Medical Humanities and some definitions separated humanities from medicine, all clinicians implicitly acknowledged the importance of Medical Humanities issues within their clinical and teaching practices during conversations prior to any mention of the term. It appears that clinicians as role models for medical students can inadvertently convey an ambivalent position towards the Medical Humanities that encompass the very values and attitudes they are trying to inculcate, sending out mixed messages to the novices.

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“…Details of these evaluations are provided and compared with evaluations of similar SSMs conducted elsewhere. [1][2][3][4][5][6] The course has had eight students in each of the four years to date, and has so far used 11 teachers. None of the tutors have any great expertise in the field of medical humanities, but all have shown great interest in the course, and have been enthusiastic participants.…”

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confidence: 99%

A literature and medicine special study module run by academics in general practice: two evaluations and the lessons learnt: Table 1

et al. 2004

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This paper describes the design, delivery and evaluation of a nine week special study module on literature and medicine for third year undergraduate medical students, by tutors from an academic department of general practice. Three weeks of taught seminars are followed by three weeks of one on one meetings between individual students and tutors, leading to a seminar led by, and based on, materials prepared by the student. The final three weeks of the course are dedicated to completion of essays about areas chosen by students for in depth study.The course was evaluated on two separate occasions, using two different techniques: the first evaluation used a focus group technique to identify and explore relevant themes; the second used nominal group theory to assess whether the course worked educationally, and how it could be improved.In the main, the course was judged to meets its aims, with generally positive student comments, albeit with caveats and reservations. The subject matter was intellectually challenging for students and tutors. Further research into the optimal size for such groups, and a more formal evaluation of tutors’ experiences is required.

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From Kafka to Casualty: doctors and medicine in popular culture and the arts— a special studies module

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

Medical humanities as expressive of Western culture

Medical humanities as expressive of Western culture

A silly expression: Consultants’ implicit and explicit understanding of Medical Humanities. A qualitative analysis

A literature and medicine special study module run by academics in general practice: two evaluations and the lessons learnt: Table 1

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