Teaching Humanities to Medical Students: Moving From the Classroom to the Clinic

Purpose: While humanistic practice is an essential component of medical school curricula, there are few applied experiences that instill humanistic behaviors. Since 2008, we have offered an innovative clinical rotation, where instead of clinical duties, students “shadow” pediatric oncology patients and their families, employing narrative medicine to provide insights into the experience of illness, navigating health systems issues, and the complexity of interdisciplinary care. Methods: Using qualitative methods, a trained research team analyzed the 120 student narratives submitted from 2008 through 2019. Statements that exhibited humanism were extracted and reduced to five common themes. Results: The narratives revealed: 1) A heightened sense of empathy; 2) The ability to self-structure humanistic experiences; 3) Enhanced communication with both team members and patients, especially during “down time” such as in waiting rooms; 4) An appreciation of family dynamics during acute and chronic illness; 5) Insights into important system issues and their effect on the patient experience such as hospital admission, consent processes and prolonged waiting times. Moreover, quotes from the narratives exemplify each of the core competencies of integrity, excellence, compassion, altruism, respect, empathy, and service of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation framework for humanism. Discussion: We offer evidence that a brief but immersive experiential teaching method has the potential to enhance medical student humanism. By processing experiences through narrative, students’ sense of empathy and humanism was reinvigorated during a critical time in their medical training. Most students reported a beneficial impact of the rotation, suggesting it could be applied in other areas of medical training. Allowing students the freedom and the time to interact with and listen to patients and families has the potential to transform medical education.