Teaching human side of patient care is best done at the bedside, say medical...( Despite widespread recognition that pos...),Health

Despite widespread recognition that positive physician-patient interactions are beneficial to the treatment of disease, medical students and residents still receive little effective training in the human dimensions of their craft, according to a consensus of expert teachers published in the Sept. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Humanism in medicine can be taught most effectively not through formal coursework, but through interactions that occur directly at the patients bedside, the article concludes.

Physicians at six academic medical centers, led by William T. Branch, Jr., M.D., professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, conducted informal, one-on-one surveys of more than 50 faculty physicians nationwide who teach medical students and residents in a variety of educational settings. They analyzed the data to determine the extent to which humanism is a part of medical education and to discover barriers that may prevent physicians-in-training from receiving humanistic education. In their consensus article, the authors suggest pragmatic methods to improve medical education through the teaching of humanism within clinical settings as a part of bedside interactions.

The authors were members of the Ad Hoc Group on Teaching Humanism at the Bedside created at a meeting of the American Academy on Physician and Patient in June, 1998. In addition to Dr. Branch, the group included David Kern, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bayview Medical Center; Paul Haidet, M.D., M.P.H., Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center; Peter Weissmann, M.D., University of Minnesota Medical School; Catherine F. Gracey, M.D., University of Rochester School of Medicine; Gary Mitchell, M.D., Indiana University School of Medicine; and Thomas Inui, M.D., The Fetzer Institute.

The primary question the surveyors asked was: "What can we do in the patients presence to improve a
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Contact: Holly Korschun
hkorsch@emory.edu
404-727-3990
Emory University Health Sciences Center
4-Sep-2001

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