When medical students aren't dissecting cadavers or studying organic chemistry, they're writing poems and creative essays. That's because medical schools are using humanities classes as part of medical training to improve empathy and communication skills, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Med schools are placing more focus on teaching compassionate care, offering writing workshops and art appreciation programs that help students express feelings about clinical experiences, like the death of a patient.
"Emotional reasoning and clinical empathy isn't about be-nice-to-the-patient. It's about understanding the significance of illness and how it takes place in the context of their life, and any physician or caregiver who doesn't have a sense of that cannot be effective," Felice Aull, founding editor of the literature, arts and medicine database at New York University, told the Journal.
Although most humanities courses are offered as electives, a growing number of U.S. schools are making them mandatory for aspiring doctors. For example, Brown University's medical school requires a two-year reflective writing course for first- and second-year students. According to class instructor Dr. Hedy Wald, the program helps students think critically about diagnoses, cope with uncertainty and deal with ethical dilemmas.
More U.S. schools may begin to require such compassionate-care education, as studies show patients are more satisfied with empathetic doctors and are more likely to follow their instructions, notes the Journal.
For more:
- read the Wall Street Journal article