Medical Humanities, University of South Carolina

Many medical students emerge from their undergraduate years having honed their minds with the heft of the “hard” sciences. Many of these students have had little opportunity or interest enough to fully appreciate the relevance of learning about topics in the humanities and have any beneficial effect in their educational experience. There is ample and robust evidence to support the importance of integrating a formal humanities training within the medical education curriculum. Using models from other institutions, we will focus on the development and enhancement of the student’s capacity for empathy and self-reflection while translating these qualities in day-to-day interactions with patients. Students will meet with the course directors monthly in 2-hour sessions where we will discuss required reading and assignments in literature relevant to medicine including short stories, essays, articles, and poetry as well as assignments in the visual arts, film, music, and theatre. Longitudinal elective only. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.