The approach of medical students towards studies of the humanities and social sciences

Irayda Jakušovaitė,Aurelija Blaževičienė

doi:10.3390/medicina43070074

Abstract

To analyze the attitudes of the medical students from Kaunas University of Medicine, Krakow Jagiellonian University, and St. Petersburg State University towards the studies of the humanities and social sciences. The survey was carried out in three universities (Kaunas University of Medicine, Krakow Jagiellonian University, and St. Petersburg State University) during 2004-2005. The questionnaire for the investigation was developed based on R. D. Stenberg's works on the ways of knowledge-, practice-, and personality-oriented thinking. After the analysis of students' attitudes towards the importance of the disciplines of ethics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology at the universities of Kaunas, Krakow, and St. Petersburg, important differences have been found among them. Students gave the highest priority to ethics in their profession. Answering the question, "Are philosophical studies important in medical studies," statistically significant differences appeared among Krakow, Kaunas, and St. Petersburg universities. Students of all the universities agreed that sociology and psychology studies were important for their future profession. Having estimated the opinions of medical students' attitudes towards the importance of the humanities and social sciences, we may state that the students of Krakow and St. Petersburg universities more often agreed that ethics and philosophy were important for their studies. The importance of psychology science was emphasized by the students of all universities, and the students of Kaunas University of Medicine and St. Petersburg State University agreed more often that the discipline of sociology was important for the future studies.

Highlights

Medicine has always been considered the most humane science, and no questions concerning the values in the content of education have been raised
Having estimated the opinions of medical students’ attitudes towards the importance of the humanities and social sciences, we may state that the students of Krakow and St
The importance of psychology science was emphasized by the students of all universities, and the students of Kaunas University of Medicine and St

Summary

Introduction

Medicine has always been considered the most humane science, and no questions concerning the values in the content of education have been raised. The main changes in medical thinking and healthcare of the second part of the 20th century are related to the transfer of the focus of health care (panel), which has shifted from the individual to the community, from cure of disease to preservation of health, from episodic care to continuous and comprehensive care, and from an individual approach provided by single primary care physicians to comprehensive, community-based primary care [2]. In the second half of the 20th century, the character of diseases has changed, and the aging population has faced problems that cannot be solved by biomedicine. A number of medical specialists believe that is possible to master medicine by studying the nature sciences or other clinical sub-

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