| Learning Objective #1: Summarize key rationales for humanities teaching in nursing and physician education | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Correlate educational experiences and learner goals/productions [visuals, journals, poetry, etc.] |
Humanities education has received increased recent attention in nursing and medicine, particularly for its value as a way to address end-of-life issues, patient-centered care, holistic understanding, empathic skills, and caregiver self-nurturance. The technical and academic content demands in nursing and physician education preclude extensive humanities teaching within the core curricula. However, brief and targeted humanities experiences through the course of professional education may serve to establish ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling that will serve longterm skill maintenance and professional well-being. The formal content of "the humanities" is vast, and available time is brief; the health-care learner needs materials and formats that are practical and user-friendly. The visual arts generalize to the visual skillfulness of the experienced clinician; listening to narrative and poetry may develop empathy; journaling has health benefits as well as value in appreciating patient lessons during care; self-expression in general may serve to maintain caregiver balance and well-being. These components can be presented in brief, practical, and user-friendly formats. The current presentation will summarize the above considerations, with supporting references and materials. The initial development and outcomes of brief humanities experiences for undergraduate nursing students in a medical-surgical clinical experience will be described. The teaching content, brief summaries and examples of materials/presentations, and representative student responses and productions will complete this particular consideration of humanities teaching.
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