Integration of arts and humanities in medicine to develop well-rounded physicians: the roles of health sciences librarians

Authors

Misa Mi, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine Medical Library, Rochester, MIFollow
Lin Wu, Health Sciences Library, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TNFollow
Yingting Zhang, RWJ Library of the Health Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJFollow
Wendy Wu, Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University, Detroit, MIFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Over the past ten years, there has been a growing interest in integrating arts and humanities in medicine to increase learners’ empathy and resilience, improve personal well-being, communication, and observational skills, enhance self- reflection, and promote professionalism. These desired skills and qualities are becoming increasingly important for the physicians of tomorrow. Parallel to curricular interventions of integrating arts and humanities to medical education, there has been an increasing research interest in investigating the impact of such interventions on medical students with respect to improving and sustaining students’ empathy as they progress in their medical education and develop their professional identity. Research has yielded interesting findings on the types and effect of the interventions in the medical curriculum. The Association of the American Medical Colleges (AAMC), recognizing the unique and unrealized role of arts and humanities in preparing and equipping physicians for twenty-first-century challenges, proposed seven recommendations for advancing arts and humanities integration into medical education to improve the education, practice, and well-being of physicians and physician learners across the spectrum of medical education. Institutional initiatives of arts and humanities integration in the medical curriculum in response to the AAMC’s recommendations afford health sciences librarians expansive opportunities and a new landscape of playing an important role in these initiatives. With their diverse educational background in arts, humanities, social sciences, and many other disciplines and fields, health sciences librarians are poised for meaningful contributions to their institutional goals in developing a humanistic, compassionate workforce of future physicians.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Library and Information Science | Medical Education

Recommended Citation

Mi M, Wu L, Zhang Y, Wu W. Integration of arts and humanities in medicine to develop well-rounded physicians: the roles of health sciences librarians. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 2002;110(2):247-52. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2002.1.368.

Comments

Shared under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which allows sharing provided attribution is given and a link to the license is provided. This article is published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Copyright is retained by the authors, and the original is available at https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2002.1.368.