%0 Journal Article
%T Humanities for medical students? A qualitative study of a medical humanities curriculum in a medical school program
%A Caroline Wachtler
%A Susanne Lundin
%A Margareta Troein
%J BMC Medical Education
%D 2006
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6920-6-16
%X Our theoretical approach in this study is informed by derridean deconstruction and by post-structuralist analysis. We examined the ideology of the Humanities and Medicine program at Lund University, Sweden, the practical implementation of the program, and how ideology and practice corresponded. Examination of the ideology driving the humanities and medicine program was based on a critical reading of all available written material concerning the Humanities and Medicine project. The practice of the program was examined by means of a participatory observation study of one course, and by in-depth interviews with five students who participated in the course. Data was analysed using a hermeneutic editing approach.The ideological language used to describe the program calls it an interdisciplinary learning environment but at the same time shows that the conditions of the program are established by the medical faculty's agenda. In practice, the "humanities" are constructed, defined and used within a medical frame of reference. Medical students have interesting discussions, acquire concepts and enjoy the program. But they come away lacking theoretical structure to understand what they have learned. There is no place for humanities students in the program.A challenge facing cross-disciplinary programs is creating an environment where the disciplines have equal standing and contribution.Over the past 30 years there has been a trend towards the development of humanities curriculum in medical education, both in the United States and Europe. [1-3] Primarily, humanities researchers have developed the area of medical humanities, a discipline that is often part of a medical school faculty. Medical humanities can be defined as the application of the techniques of reporting, interpreting and theorising developed by the traditional humanities fields to phenomena within the traditional medical field [4].The medical humanities can have both instrumental and non-instrumental functions in a
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/16