How could the humanities contribute to better training of physicians?

Josep-E. Baños ^[1] ; Elena Guardiola ^[1]
1. [1] Universitat Pompeu Fabra
  
  Universitat Pompeu Fabra
  
  Barcelona, España
Localización: The role of humanities in the teaching of medical students / Carlo Orefice (aut.), Josep Eladi Baños i Díez (aut.), 2018, ISBN 978-84-947204-3-7, págs. 24-38
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- The development of modern scientific medicine in the 19th century and the therapeutic advances in the 20th century shifted the interest of many physicians from the patient to the disease. This situation has worsened as a consequence of the success of evidence based-medicine, the increasing availability of technology and the increasing costs of medical care. One of the most important consequences of such scenario is the drastic reduction of the time that physicians can devote to their patients. As a consequence, the doctor-patient relationship is deteriorating, as many patients believe that their physicians are only interested in treating the disease and not in their feelings as sick persons. Worries have appeared about the need of ‘humanizing’ medicine by recovering the role of physicians as professionals who cure diseases but also take care of patients in a wide sense as well. A needed step to reach such a goal is to train medical students in the values of professionalism. Humanities may enhance their full understanding of the disease and not only of the underlying biological processes. We need to come forward to convince medical educators of how literature, visual arts, history or philosophy may help students to understand better the patients’ feelings on their own diseases. Humanities are not a cultural curiosity in the field of medicine. They will help to train more empathic physicians by showing the need of treating patients, not only diseases.