Clinical Humanities in Primary Care for Year 2 Medical Students: A Student perspective.

Preeti Sandhu,Liza Kirtchuk,Ann Wylie,Niki Jakeways

doi:10.15694/mep.2018.0000193.1

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. As part of a new MBBS Curriculum at GKT Medical School, King's College London, second year medical students undertook a clinical humanities assignment during their longitudinal GP placement. Groups of students all produced a humanities output relating to medicine and patient care in the community. This article explores the experiences from the student perspective and key learning points for subsequent cohorts, identifying four themes from the feedback obtained in a student evaluation: Broadening horizons; teamworking and leadership, wider community care involvement and seeing patients through different eyes.

Highlights

Medical undergraduate curricula in the United Kingdom (UK) are guided and regulated by the General Medical Council to ensure that qualifying doctors are suitably prepared and have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for safe practice in their foundation years (General Medical Council, 2018)
The continuity inherent in the longitudinal placement allowed for some student groups to create a humanities outputs that was of benefit to the general practice
Students described enjoying creating something useful for their general practice, able to see it in use, and found this helped develop their understanding of patient care

Summary

Introduction

Medical undergraduate curricula in the United Kingdom (UK) are guided and regulated by the General Medical Council to ensure that qualifying doctors are suitably prepared and have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for safe practice in their foundation years (General Medical Council, 2018). The introduction of clinical humanities in medical education demonstrates a push by medical schools to enhance students understanding of the patient perspective to healthcare, as well as developing compassionate doctors (Gillies, 2018) (Wass, 2018). Clinical humanities in medical education in the United States is more developed than in the UK and has seen courses in literature and painting included as part of the medical syllabus, with arts being mandatory in over 50% of American medical schools (Banaszek, 2011). Recent advancements in the UK has seen the development of the Association for Medical Humanities, with many universities encompassing arts with healthcare within their undergraduate medical course (Association for Medical Humanities, 2018)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion