Medical Education Commons^™

The Effect Of Reflection Rounds On Medical Students’ Empathy, Erica Westlake, Jennifer Desantis, Med, Fred Markham, Md

Phase 1

Background: A decline in empathy has been noted in medical students in medical education and training. This decline raises concerns because empathic physician-patient interactions positively impact health outcomes and patient satisfaction. We tested the hypothesis that Reflection Rounds would increase empathy scores of third-year medical students.

Methods: Third-year students entering their Family and Community Medicine (FCM) clerkship completed the Jefferson Physician Scale of Empathy – Student Version (JPSE-S) at the onset of their clerkship; students at the Jefferson Campus site were assigned to the experimental group and students at Affiliate Sites were assigned to the control group. The experimental group …

Music In Medicine: Enhancing Emotion Recognition In Medical Students, Grace Chon, Debra Lew Harder, Md, Dma

Phase 1

Previous studies have shown that visual art courses for medical students have improved their diagnostic skills. A music course in a similar fashion may enhance their ability to recognize patient emotion in the patient’s voice. Identifying patient emotion via auditory cues allows future physicians to appropriately respond to patients’ mental states and provide empathetic care. This study proposes that medical students who complete a course in recognizing emotional cues in music will outperform a control group in correctly identifying emotion in the human voice.

Participants were randomly divided into control and experimental groups, in which only the latter completed a …

Narrative Medicine: A Reflective Writing Workshop Series For Interprofessional Healthcare Students At Thomas Jefferson University, Carly S. Slater, Ma, Ms, Brooke Salzman, Md, Rosemary Frasso, Phd, Cph

Phase 1

Introduction: Narrative medicine (NM) teaches reflective writing and close reading to help healthcare professionals think critically about themselves and others in order to offer more effective, empathic care. Few reports of NM methods document its value to facilitating collaboration and communication across students of different professional backgrounds. This study examines the effects of NM workshops on Thomas Jefferson University interprofessional healthcare students, and their utility to achieving these aims: 1) supporting thoughtfulness, mindfulness, and curiosity; 2) supporting the development and use of narrative in understanding the lives/contexts for self and others; 3) improving interactions and communication with others in professional …

What It’S Like To Study The Brain: A Creative Exploration, T. J. Cahanap, Katherine Hubbard, Ma

Phase 1

Introduction: In recent years, medicine and the humanities have evolved to be adopted synergistically in dual practice. Employing principles of narrative medicine, this multimodal piece explores the experience of hunger to draw parallels between creativity in art and creativity in medicine. By stimulating reading, writing, listening, and seeing, this account aims to represent these faculties as necessary to both art and medicine and to exemplify synergy between the two.

Methods: As codified by the field of narrative medicine, methods consisted of a repetitive practice of close reading, writing, and reflecting. In viewing medicine as interconnected provider-patient narrative, scholars of narrative …

Medice, Cura Te Ipsum (Physician, Heal Thyself): A Documentary Film Exploring How The Passions Of Medical Students Will Make Them Better And Healthier Physicians, Ryan Emhoff

Phase 1

It is a well documented, yet largely ignored fact that physicians, residents and medical students are experiencing a pandemic of depression, burnout, dissatisfaction, and suicide. The principal cause may be the institution of medicine, which is slow to change, abusive, and dismissive of these complaints. While interventions are necessary at all levels of training, medical students may be the most in need as their mental health is the poorest of these groups.

Emotion-focused coping activities focus on alleviating stress. The humanities can function as emotion-focused coping activities, and exposure to them in medical education has been correlated with higher empathy …

“Who Am I Now?”: A Musical And Creative Case Study/Time Capsule, Alexander M. Olson

Phase 1

Background

Medical school is an immense undertaking, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. I heard it said that “medicine is the frontline seat to human condition, without the tools to process that...it becomes traumatic”. I entered this phase of my life with interests and passion outside of my professional aspirations, and I have found it a struggle to devote to them the energy and time that they deserve. I have chosen a project in the humanities track, focused on creating a musical time capsule of creative work.

Objective

To create a chronological record of my evolving musical tastes and influences that I …

De-Stigmatizing Mental Illness Through Graphic Medicine, Megumi Tsuda

Phase 1

Graphic medicine - or the communication of health-related narratives through images and texts, such as comics - has been increasingly recognized as a powerful educational tool. My project investigates the value of integrating graphic medicine to medical education, specifically to improve mental health literacy and de-stigmatize mental illness. As a medical student, I have encountered several instances where fellow medical students and even doctors casually throw around diagnostic terminology, especially those used to describe mental health disorders, in a colloquial and insensitive manner that seem to indicate that they do not take mental illness seriously, or even ignorant of what …

The Sentiment, Alexander Thomas

Phase 1

The Sentiment is a work of prose poetry that crystallizes my understanding of fluid identity and the interrelation of all existences. It synthesizes my personal experiences with the words and actions of the many teachers who came before me, and serves as an existential reminder of the unique and universal nature of all things. This is a perception that has only grown through the writing of the work, and one which deeply affects my relationships with others. It is, in large part, my motivation for becoming a doctor. I see each suffering as my suffering, and each joy as my …