title: Providing context for a medical school basic science curriculum: The importance of the humanities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To increase students' understanding of what it means to be a physician and engage in the everyday practice of medicine, a humanities program was implemented into the preclinical curriculum of the medical school curriculum. The purpose of our study was to determine how medical students' views of being a doctor evolved after participating in a required humanities course.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical students completing a 16-clock hour humanities course from 10 courses were asked to respond to an open-ended reflection question regarding changes, if any, of their views of being a doctor. The constant comparative method was used for coding; triangulation and a variety of techniques were used to provide evidence of validity of the analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A majority of first- and second-year medical students (rr = 70%) replied, resulting in 100 pages of text. A meta-theme of Contextualizing the Purpose of Medicine and three subthemes: the importance of Treating Patients Rather than a Disease, Understanding Observation Skills are Important, and Recognizing that Doctors are Fallible emerged from the data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that requiring humanities as part of the required preclinical curriculum can have a positive influence on medical students and act as a bridge to contextualize the purpose of medicine.
authors: a Penn State Hershey College of Medicine , USA .
authors: Britta M
authors: BM
authors: Thompson
authors: b University of Oklahoma College of Medicine , USA .
authors: Jerry B
authors: JB
authors: Vannatta
authors: b University of Oklahoma College of Medicine , USA .
authors: Laura E
authors: LE
authors: Scobey
authors: b University of Oklahoma College of Medicine , USA .
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Fergeson
authors: Humanities Research Group
authors: c University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine , USA.
authors: Sheila M
authors: SM
authors: Crow
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003479:Curriculum; D006809:Humanities / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D010819:Physician's Role; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*