Science can exist without context just as medicine can exist without patients, but should it? Data supporting a need for medical students to learn literature, philosophy, language, religion, art, and music are limited, but study findings indicate that the humanities can enhance empathy in medical students.
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Sir William Osler, MD, asked, “Will study of the humanities counter overspecialization and narrowness?”
3 In osteopathic medicine, one might ask, “Can study of the humanities reinforce the osteopathic philosophy that emphasizes care for the whole person: body, mind, and spirit? How do we develop a better appreciation or understanding of our patients?”
Groups such as the Arnold P. Gold Foundation
4 and the American Balint Society
5 formed to focus on enhancing humanism in health care. Meanwhile, osteopathic medical schools are struggling to find the proper structure to teach, assess, and value humanistic qualities in medical education despite the centrality of humanism to the osteopathic philosophy.
Although outlets and structure to study and explore the humanities are limited in medical education, attempts to humanize medicine through narrative medicine, illness narratives, creative writing, and storytelling exist. Physicians have long sought opportunities to share their stories, to illuminate human experiences, and to process those experiences outside of the required training in medicine.
By incorporating skills from the humanities in medical training, we can equip physicians in mindful listening and empathetic and compassionate observation. Osteopathic students and physicians are taught to listen not only to what patients say but also to what they do not say (eg, body language).
There is a growing movement to incorporate humanities into medical education. The humanities comprise powerful tools to individualize care for the patient and to provide self-care and support to physicians in a stressful profession. To maximize a patient’s health, physicians must look beyond the science and see the individual.
Medical humanities resources are available both inside and outside the osteopathic medical community.
22 As technology advances, we need to monitor the divide between humanities and medicine as a protection for the patient-physician relationship. Humanities can be a helpful tool to bridge communication gaps and foster unity between patients and physicians.
Cultural competence and professionalism are topic areas where proficiency is expected, and humanism should be considered a required area as well. The Hippocratic Oath serves as a reminder to physicians, who vow to “remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.”