The humanities in medical education: lessons from the past.

Abstract

There has been increasing commentary about the humanities in medical education. There have also been frequent calls for more emphasis on the humanities in medical education. The reasons for these calls will be familiar to those who read the medical education literature: broadly they include concerns at the increasingly technical nature of medicine and medical education, and the need for doctors to learn how to explore knowledge from a perspective that is different to that of the traditional scientific approach. However this increased interest and these calls are not new. In 1947 Medvei wrote a descriptive manuscript in St Bartholomew’s Hospital Journal outlining his experience in learning from the humanities.1 His insightful manuscript was written from his perspective as a physician working in St Bartholomew’s Hospital. The manuscript starts with the author describing his high school and medical school education that led to his career as a doctor. However, despite satisfaction from his medical career, he describes there being something missing in his general …