Whither medical humanities?

Abstract

Understanding the medical humanities (MH) and their role in medical education is in its infancy in India. Students are initiated into professional (medical) education too early in life, usually at the expense of a basic grounding in the humanities, resulting in warped intellectual growth. The author, arguing against the wholesale import of foreign systems, advocates free inquiry by medical educators to evolve a humanities programme for medical students derived from our own cultural context. This essay describes the early experiences of efforts to make a beginning at the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi. The author reviews the various strategies used and the challenges of introducing the subject to the current generation of medical students.

Developing Humanistic Competencies Within the Competency-Based Curriculum

“…There are various reasons that prompted the authorities to consider using the humanities in medical teaching: student burnout, mental health issues, and suicides; faculty and provider burnout; student anecdotes about faculty teaching by humiliation; provider-patient encounters resulting in miscommunication; missing empathy and poor communication skills; violence perpetrated by patients' relatives; and public displays by providers showing unprofessionalism and unethical behavior [1][2][3][4]. Clearly, conventional medical education methods were lacking a critical humanitarian element [5]. These observations confirm the intuitive rationale for the inclusion of the humanities in health professions education (HPE) -"to educate for sensitivity so that we do not produce [providers] who place cases and smart diagnoses before persons and feelings" [6].…”

“…This topic has generated a great deal of debate. While it all began as the medical humanities, some feel that adding the 'medical' to the humanities creates an unfortunate and restrictive association that compels one to examine the humanities from the perspective of medicine and not in their own right [5]. Others find that the term seems to preclude 'health', which has a broader reach than that of medicine.…”

Walking up hills, through history and in-between disciplines: MHH and Health Sciences Education at the tip of Africa

“…It is exciting to consider that at some point in the future the field will be sufficiently evolved to allow for contemplation on how different disciplinary perspectives came into play and how individual disciplinary practices/pedagogies were influenced. In current discussions, we benefit from being able to learn from experiences in other countries—some of whom have been engaged more formally in the field for a significant period of time, and others who are at a similar point to us 29. There are also discussions to be had about whether MHH is to be a space for individual research interests only, part of a broader intellectual project or a combination of both.…”

Medical Humanities in Nepal: Present scenerio

“…15 At the University College of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, various initiatives to promote medical humanities have been carried out during the last three to four years. 16 Medical humanities was also recently introduced in medical curriculum of Saudi Arabia in 2012 using modules based on history of medicine during the Islamic era, Islamic medical ethics and medically relevant Arabic poetry and followed by feedback. 17…”