Creativity in Medical Education: The Value of Having Medical Students Make Stuff.
What is the value of having medical students engage in creative production as part of their learning? Creating something new requires medical students to take risks and even to fail--something they tend to be neither accustomed to nor comfortable with doing. "Making stuff" can help students prepare for such failures in a controlled environment that doesn't threaten their professional identities. Furthermore, doing so can facilitate students becoming resilient and creative problem-solvers who strive to find new ways to address vexing questions. Though creating something new can be fun, this is not the main outcome of interest. Rather, the principle reason we recommend devoting precious curricular time to creative endeavors is because it helps medical students become better doctors.
Department of Humanities, Penn State College of Medicine, C1743, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA. mjg15@psu.edu.|Department of Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA. mjg15@psu.edu.
Michael J
MJ
Green
Department of Humanities, Penn State College of Medicine, C1743, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA.
Kimberly
K
Myers
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
Katie
K
Watson
Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
M K
MK
Czerwiec
Department of Humanities, Penn State College of Medicine, C1743, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA.
Dan
D
Shapiro
Academic Affairs College of Naturopathic Medicine, University of Bridgeport, Health Science Center 60 Lafayette Street, Bridgeport, CT, 06604, USA.
Stephanie
S
Draus
D003405:Creativity; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D013663:Teaching
Creativity; Humanities; Medical education; Teaching