Medical Student Perspectives on the Medical Humanities: Transcripts of Focus Groups of Students at the Perelman School of Medicine
Description
An emerging area of research has focused on medical student attitudes and beliefs about the arts and humanities and the role of these disciplines in medical education. These studies have investigated cohorts of European and Canadian medical students, but there is significantly less understanding of US medical student perspectives. To begin to address these gaps in the literature, we conducted focus groups of students at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to characterize the attitudes, beliefs and experiences of students regarding the arts and humanities, with the goal of contributing to the broader understanding of role of the arts and humanities in the education of US medical students.
Files
Steps to reproduce
Focus group participants were randomly selected from students who completed the original survey. Eight-eight students were invited to participate, and three focus groups comprising a total of 10 students were eventually performed. The focus groups were led by a single trained moderator. An additional researcher was present to record notes. The moderators did not have direct roles in students’ education through teaching or precepting. The moderators all received a 1-hour facilitator training, resource materials, and led the session based on the focus group guide. Techniques used to discuss topics included open-ended questions, reflection statements, divergent opinion seeking and probing of all group members. At the start of the session, students were prompted to develop their initial opinions by writing down five thoughts on the role of medical humanities in medical education and forming a physician identity. Subsequent questions were conducted in a discussion-based format.
Institutions
- University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine