Humanities Education at Northwestern University???s Feinberg School of Medicine

Abstract

The Medical Humanities and Bioethics Program at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine is responsible for humanities education in all four years of medical school: five units of the required four-year Patient, Physician, and Society course, 37 to 40 medical humanities seminars in years one and two, more than 125 ethics case conferences in third-year clerkships, and electives for fourth-year students. The program faculty also participate in ethics and humanities education in residencies, and the program offers an annual one-year fellowship. The program introduced the small-group teaching that now characterizes much of the school's curriculum, and its course units and seminars have been a resource for faculty development and curricular innovation. Drawing on literature, religion, ethics, philosophy of medicine, film, history, social and cultural anthropology, and jurisprudence, humanities education is designed to foster habits of discourse on social and moral issues in medicine. Small-group teaching and interactive learning are its central pedagogical methods. Essential to their successful use in a school that enrolls approximately 170 students each year is a large cadre of volunteer clinicians who serve as tutors and the college system, a four-part division of each class instituted by the 1993 curriculum reform. Students are evaluated on preparation, class participation, and regular writing assignments. All course units and seminars are pass/fail (as are all first- and second-year courses); tutors supply narrative comments. The courses themselves are thoroughly evaluated by students and reviewed both by the relevant faculty-student committee and at an annual curriculum retreat.

Can Compassion be Taught? Let’s Ask Our Students

“…Throughout North and South America and Europe, what we share, according to these sitespecific descriptions, is the belief that such inquiry can help students develop a "moral imagination" 19 and "self-reflective disposition", 20 "foster habits of discourse on social and moral issues in medicine" 21 ; and "engender…empathy for the patient's experience of illness". 22 These beliefs have become conventional wisdom, in spite of the fact that most of us in the medical humanities are leery about assumptions that what we teach makes students "better people with the 'right' character".…”

Integrating humanities curricula in medical education: a needs assessment

“…Fortyeight articles described a humanities-based intervention. Twenty-six of these 48 articles did not report any formalised evaluation outcomes (Goodwin 2015, Kemp 2014, Ortega 2011, Wald 2010, Joachim 2008, Kumagai 2008, Boudreau 2007, Meites 2003, Louis-Courvoisier 2003, Frich 2003, Acuna 2003, Murray 2003, Jones 2003, Hawkins 2003, Wear 2003, Fried 2003, Spike 2003, Krackov 2003, Sirridge 2003, Andre 2003, Montgomery 2003, Kirklin 2003, Rizzolo 2002, Sklar 2002, Downie 1997, Self 1990. Of the 22 articles reporting evaluation outcomes, 12 described learner satisfaction outcomes (del Pozo 2005, Wald 2015, Gurtoo 2013, Abdel-Halim 2012, George 2011, Karnad 1999, Shapiro 2003, Newell 2003, Anderson 2003, Lypson 2002, Bertman 1985, Wilson 1980.…”

Incorporation of spiritual care as a component of healthcare and medical education: comparison of Sub-Saharan African and Northern European viewpoints

“…[21][22] Surveys of practice at medical schools are dominated by data from USA. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Recent review articles have called for more studies from elsewhere in the world. Studies from other healthcare settings are few and do not directly compare practice in the UK and elsewhere.…”