Medical Humanities and Their Discontents: Definitions, Critiques, and Implications

Abstract

The humanities offer great potential for enhancing professional and humanistic development in medical education. Yet, although many students report benefit from exposure to the humanities in their medical education, they also offer consistent complaints and skepticism. The authors offer a pedagogical definition of the medical humanities, linking it to medicine as a practice profession. They then explore three student critiques of medical humanities curricula: (1) the content critique, examining issues of perceived relevance and intellectual bait-and-switch, (2) the teaching critique, which examines instructor trustworthiness and perceived personal intrusiveness, and (3) the structural/placement critique, or how and when medical humanities appear in the curriculum. Next, ways are suggested to tailor medical humanities to better acknowledge and reframe the needs of medical students. These include ongoing cross-disciplinary reflective practices in which intellectual tools of the humanities are incorporated into educational activities to help students examine and, at times, contest the process, values, and goals of medical practice. This systematic, pervasive reflection will organically lead to meaningful contributions from the medical humanities in three specific areas of great interest to medical educators: professionalism, "narrativity," and educational competencies. Regarding pedagogy, the implications of this approach are an integrated required curriculum and innovative concepts such as "applied humanities scholars." In turn, systematic integration of humanities perspectives and ways of thinking into clinical training will usefully expand the range of metaphors and narratives available to reflect on medical practice and offer possibilities for deepening and strengthening professional education.

Narrativas de estudantes de Medicina e Enfermagem: currículo oculto e desumanização em saúde

“…Consideram-se humanidades médicas como algumas combinações de disciplinas relevantes do campo das modernas artes liberais -ética e filosofia, estudos acerca da espiritualidade, literatura e assim por diante -enfocadas em contextos médicos 13 . Shapiro et al 14 , cientes da falta de clareza em relação ao objeto de estudo da disciplina, referem que as humanidades médicas utilizam métodos e conceitos de uma ou mais disciplinas que compõem as humanidades e ensinam aos estudantes uma reflexão crítica visando a uma prática mais humanista e são por sua própria natureza interdisciplinares e colaborativas. Um modelo que vem se desenvolvendo nas últimas décadas em cenários clínicos e didáticos da área de saúde -medicina baseada em narrativas (MBN) 15 , medicina narrativa ou narrative medicine 16 -tem-se demonstrado congruente com as humanidades médicas.…”

Relever le défi d’introduire aux sciences humaines et sociales en première année commune des études de santé. Mise en perspective de quelques pratiques pédagogiques

“…Bien au-delà de la PACES et du contexte français, les questions que nous rencontrons traversent tout le champ des « humanités médicales », où il est particulièrement difficile de trouver un format d'enseignement qui réponde clairement à toutes les attentes suscitées [9] .…”

Emphasizing humanities in medical education: Promoting the integration of medical scientific spirit and medical humanistic spirit

“…As an interdisciplinary group of subjects, medical humanities includes philosophy, law, history, cultural studies, anthropology, religion, arts, and so on (8,9).…”