Providing context for a medical school basic science curriculum: The importance of the humanities.

INTRODUCTION: To increase students' understanding of what it means to be a physician and engage in the everyday practice of medicine, a humanities program was implemented into the preclinical curriculum of the medical school curriculum. The purpose of our study was to determine how medical students' views of being a doctor evolved after participating in a required humanities course. METHODS: Medical students completing a 16-clock hour humanities course from 10 courses were asked to respond to an open-ended reflection question regarding changes, if any, of their views of being a doctor. The constant comparative method was used for coding; triangulation and a variety of techniques were used to provide evidence of validity of the analysis. RESULTS: A majority of first- and second-year medical students (rr = 70%) replied, resulting in 100 pages of text. A meta-theme of Contextualizing the Purpose of Medicine and three subthemes: the importance of Treating Patients Rather than a Disease, Understanding Observation Skills are Important, and Recognizing that Doctors are Fallible emerged from the data. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that requiring humanities as part of the required preclinical curriculum can have a positive influence on medical students and act as a bridge to contextualize the purpose of medicine.

Meeting the family: promoting humanism in gross anatomy.

BACKGROUND: Human dissection commonly occurs early in the undergraduate medical school curriculum, thus presenting an immediate opportunity for educators to teach and encourage humanistic qualities of respect, empathy, and compassion. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of the Donor Luncheon, a unique program in which medical students meet the families of the anatomical donor prior to dissection in the anatomy course at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. METHODS: Students were randomized into groups of 8 to attend the luncheon and either met with family of the donor or attended the luncheon with no donor family present. A questionnaire measured students' attitudes at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, and at the conclusion of the anatomy course. RESULTS: Factor analysis revealed 5 scales. Analysis revealed statistically significant differences across time for Donor as Person, Dissection Process, and Donor as Patient and statistically significant differences between groups for Donor as Person and Donor as Patient. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that this program can provide students with the opportunity to maintain more humanistic attitudes at the beginning of their medical education career.

Helping medical students understand postpartum psychosis through the prism of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the use of literature to illustrate a postpartum depression lecture. METHODS: Medical students and faculty facilitators were surveyed after small group discussions. RESULTS: Students' ratings and comments were positive, and faculty comments were neutral to positive. CONCLUSION: Students valued this teaching method, while faculty observations reflected challenges of assessing literature's contributions to medical education in improving empathy and treatment outcome.