Polemic: five proposals for a medical school admission policy.
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Five proposals for admitting better applicants into medical school are discussed in this article: (1) An A level in a humanity or social science would be required, to supplement--not replace--the stringent science requirement. This would ensure that successful candidates would be better "primed" for the medical curriculum. (2) Extra points in the applicant's initial screening would be awarded for an A level in English literature. (3) There would be a minimum age of 23 for applicants, although a prior degree would not be required. This is to ensure that the applicants are mature enough to know themselves and the world better, to make a more informed and motivated choice of career, and to get more out of the humanities components of the curriculum. (4) A year's full-time experience in a healthcare or charity environment would be desirable. (5) Applicants would be given two lists of interview discussion topics to prepare: works of literature and topics in healthcare politics. (+info)
The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge.
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We have used 19.9 million papers over 5 decades and 2.1 million patents to demonstrate that teams increasingly dominate solo authors in the production of knowledge. Research is increasingly done in teams across nearly all fields. Teams typically produce more frequently cited research than individuals do, and this advantage has been increasing over time. Teams now also produce the exceptionally high-impact research, even where that distinction was once the domain of solo authors. These results are detailed for sciences and engineering, social sciences, arts and humanities, and patents, suggesting that the process of knowledge creation has fundamentally changed. (+info)
Using the humanities to strengthen the concept of professionalism among first-professional year pharmacy students.
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OBJECTIVES: To engage pharmacy students at the McWhorter School of Pharmacy in an authentic discussion of professionalism early in their education. METHODS: A booklet was prepared that included several classic short stories and essays that dealt with professionalism. This booklet was sent to all entering students in the class of 2008 and 2009 during the summer prior to their first-professional year of the PharmD program. The stories and essays were discussed in small groups with faculty facilitation during orientation when the students first arrived on campus. A survey instrument was created and administered to assess the impact of this innovative approach to enhancing professionalism. RESULTS: The program was well received and engaged our pharmacy students in a productive discussion on professionalism. Both classes' mean scores on survey items related that the students were engaged in the discussion of professionalism. Survey results pertaining to professional behavior also indicated increased awareness of the importance of professionalism. CONCLUSION: Enhancing professionalism requires a culture change that necessitates addressing professionalism at its core, a calling to serve, in a persistent and continual manner. Requiring students to read and think about professionalism in a novel way, before they even begin their first-professional year of pharmacy school, appears to be an effective approach to nurturing/encouraging professionalism. (+info)
The approach of medical students towards studies of the humanities and social sciences.
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OBJECTIVE: To analyze the attitudes of the medical students from Kaunas University of Medicine, Krakow Jagiellonian University, and St. Petersburg State University towards the studies of the humanities and social sciences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The survey was carried out in three universities (Kaunas University of Medicine, Krakow Jagiellonian University, and St. Petersburg State University) during 2004-2005. The questionnaire for the investigation was developed based on R. D. Stenberg's works on the ways of knowledge-, practice-, and personality-oriented thinking. RESULTS: After the analysis of students' attitudes towards the importance of the disciplines of ethics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology at the universities of Kaunas, Krakow, and St. Petersburg, important differences have been found among them. Students gave the highest priority to ethics in their profession. Answering the question, "Are philosophical studies important in medical studies," statistically significant differences appeared among Krakow, Kaunas, and St. Petersburg universities. Students of all the universities agreed that sociology and psychology studies were important for their future profession. CONCLUSIONS: Having estimated the opinions of medical students' attitudes towards the importance of the humanities and social sciences, we may state that the students of Krakow and St. Petersburg universities more often agreed that ethics and philosophy were important for their studies. The importance of psychology science was emphasized by the students of all universities, and the students of Kaunas University of Medicine and St. Petersburg State University agreed more often that the discipline of sociology was important for the future studies. (+info)
The medical humanities - a brief introduction.
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BACKGROUND: The medical humanities is a broad area of study and practice encompassing all nontechnical or 'human' aspects of medicine. OBJECTIVE: This article introduces a series in the medical humanities in Australian Family Physician. DISCUSSION: The medical humanities serve three main goals: the study of the human aspects of medicine from within traditional arts disciplines of history, philosophy, sociology and literature; the intersection of medicine and the creative arts; and the training of more insightful and compassionate doctors. This article briefly explores these three goals and discusses their value for the medical community. (+info)
Poetry in general practice education: perceptions of learners.
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