Although medical education focuses on absolutes, the black and white, the right versus wrong answers of multiple choice tests, in practice, medicine is the artful navigation of nuanced grays. To better prepare learners for the reality of clinical practice, the college has offered a medical humanities program as part of the longitudinal curriculum for more than a decade. Medical humanities includes the diverse fields of narrative medicine, visual arts, history, anthropology and philosophy, providing additional tools through which to process illness and health with the aim of improving patient care and physician wellness.
The program strives to:
- Promote humanistic clinical care
- Provide learners with additional tools with which to process challenging clinical scenarios
- Develop comfort with ambiguity
- Create community around shared values
- Support scholarship in the humanities
Medical Student Opportunities:
- Narrative medicine courses at the UA Poetry Center during MS1
- Guest speaker lecture series
- Mentored research/scholarly projects in narrative medicine
- Student editor positions with our humanities and arts journal, Harmony Magazine
- Narrative and Diversity Book Club
- Collaboration with the medical humanities section at the Arizona Health Sciences Library
- Integration within the artistic community of Tucson and the University of Arizona
Medical Humanities at the College of Medicine – Tucson
This elective will consist of five sessions throughout the semester in which students will take a journey through medical humanities to learn and practice tools that will aid them in becoming more compassionate and empathic physicians. Each session will delve into a unique aspect of the humanities such as reading medical-themed literature of their choice, watching visual art, engaging in discussion on issues of interest to the LGBTQ+ community, confronting the stigma and biases surrounding mental health within health care, participating in poetry writing and storytelling, and creating art/drama/music pieces to express a topic of interest.
In 2019, the Medical Humanities program partnered with the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library to establish a medical humanities literature section. Called The Arts, Wellness and Health Humanities Reading Collection, this area will enhance curricular programming with materials on humanistic perspectives to health and health care. The collection is made up of unique and thought-provoking materials that highlight the intersection of humanities and health. Visitors can read poetry, short stories, essays, and more as they relax comfortably in the library.
Also in 2019, the Medical Humanities program collaborated with the University of Arizona Health Sciences Library to create the first reflection room on the University of Arizona campus. The Reflection Room provides a private, quiet and comfortable space for reflection or meditation, and is available to U of A students, faculty, staff, residents and fellows. Funding was provided to furnish the Reflection Room with mats, a yoga bench, a meditation pillow, serene imagery and shelving.
Each year, the Willed Body Program holds a memorial service to honor our body donors for their incomparable gifts of knowledge.
Section 1: Skills of Observation by studying visual art. Shared skills of physicians and artists
Section 2: Issues in health care, including communication skills, self-care, health care legislation, life-work balance, medical school education, and residency
Harmony is a visual arts and literary journal featuring works by students, faculty, staff and patients of all colleges within the entire University of Arizona system, as well as national and international contributors. The magazine is a collaborative effort between the Medical Humanities Program and student editors, and features essays, short stories, poetry, visual art and photography.
