Abstract:

Growing concern for humanizing medicine has led to a global movement for introducing medical humanities teaching and learning in health professions⁠ education. This paper describes a “curricular” learning community that was developed at the University of Alberta to provide medical students with an opportunity for engagement and individualized, interest-based exploration of the medical humanities. The Medical/ Health Humanities (M/HH) Community of Learning (CoL) stream was introduced in 2018 as an optional component of the MD Program. The goals of the M/HH CoL are to complement and enhance the MD Program curriculum by providing a longitudinal educational experience involving both structured and experiential learning activities, offering a space for students to explore richly interdisciplinary questions, or wonderings, relevant to health, healthcare, and medicine. Promoting active exploration of medicine, health, and healthcare through the prism of the arts, humanities, and social sciences, it aims to provide a broader healthcare perspective and support the intellectual curiosity and development of well-rounded, compassionate physicians, as well as encouraging scholarship and leadership in the M/HH.

With respect to guiding objectives, it is expected that students who complete the requirements for this community of learning will demonstrate:
1) heightened ability to critically reflect on the roles and responsibilities of healthcare practitioners;
2) enhanced self- and other-awareness and responsiveness, personal growth, and professional development;
3) skill in critical reflection and thoughtfulness with respect to complex ethical and other challenging issues in medicine;
4) enhanced comfort with, and ability to navigate ambiguity and uncertainty in clinical situations;
5) ability to role model compassionate care, and serve as mentors and leaders committed to helping create a better future for health, healthcare, and medicine, through the M/HH.

Progressive learning is emphasized. The M/HH CoL requires completion of 90 hours of M/HH-related learning across four categories of activity: 1) “Orienting to/ Engaging in M/HH” (~20 hrs/ min. 16 hrs); 2) “Directed Exploration” (~36 hrs/ min. 24 hrs); 3) “Contributing to M/HH” (~25 hrs/ min.10 hrs); 4) “Ongoing Exploration” (~40 hrs/ no minimum). M/HH CoL requirements can be completed within the first two years of medical school, although some students continue to actively contribute and accumulate activity hours through all four years of the MD Program. This paper describes the structures, activities, processes, and early outcomes of the M/HH CoL. An overview of learning communities and scholarly concentrations in medical education is first provided to help situate the development and implementation of the M/HH CoL—which was particularly challenging during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as plans for enhancing it, which are also outlined.

Keywords:

Medical humanities, health humanities, undergraduate medical education, learning communities, scholarly concentrations