The physician healer track: educating the hearts and the minds of future physicians.

The physician healer track: educating the hearts and the minds of future physicians. Med Educ Online. 2021 Dec;26(1):1844394 Authors: Buck E, Billingsley T, McKee J, Richardson G, Geary C Abstract Calls to reform medical education recommend explicit training in professional identity formation to promote the development of humanistic, compassionate physicians. The authors report their experience offering The Physician Healer Track, a 500-contact-hour curricula integrated over 4 years, focusing on self-awareness, reflection, being-with-suffering, communication and professional identity development. The voluntary scholarly-concentration program comprises 4 years of monthly dinner meetings with faculty mentors, a two-month preceptorship in the first year, a one-month immersion course in MS4 and one elective. Training in mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, nonviolent communication, motivational interviewing, spirituality in healthcare, wellness, equanimity, and 'being with suffering' is reinforced across all 4 years. Community building and reflection are integral to the training both in the monthly sessions and the immersion courses. Enrollment has grown from 26 students in the first year (11% of class) to a total of 258 students across our first 6 years (average of 20-26% of each class). Graduates in our first two cohorts of PHT have exceeded the numbers in the eight other scholarly concentrations offered at UTMB. Among students p...
Source: Medical Education Online - Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Med Educ Online Source Type: research