August 2007 | Back to Table of Contents
Pulse
Students with a Heart
The Gold Humanism Honor Society urges medical students to doctor with their hearts as well as their heads.
Tara Frerks, M.D., believes being a good doctor involves more than being professional. “Maintaining professionalism is very noble and essential for us to do; yet I submit, it still doesn’t get to the heart of our role as physicians and health care providers,” she told a group of medical students, faculty, physicians, and administrators during an honors and awards reception sponsored by the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Minnesota Medical Foundation last April. “Unfortunately, we can be professional without offering an ounce of humanism to our patients.”
Frerks, who graduated from the university’s medical school in May and is now a resident in the La Crosse-Mayo Family Medicine residency program in La Crosse, Wisconsin, says her goal for the speech was to inspire her fellow students to acquire the “habit of humanism”—to affirm the worth of every patient, every single day by showing them compassion and empathy.
What is Humanism?
“Some people find it synonymous with professionalism, others say it’s a distinct quality,” says John Song, M.D., an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Center for Bioethics and faculty advisor for the university’s Gold Humanism Honor Society chapter.
The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, which is dedicated to fostering humanism in medicine and sponsors the honor society, considers a humanistic physician one who demonstrates integrity, excellence, compassion, altruism, respect, empathy, and service. |
The Andover native admits she didn’t consider the concept until her final year of medical school, when she was inducted into the university’s chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. An initiative of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the honor society recognizes medical students as well as residents and faculty members for their excellence in leadership, compassion, and clinical care, and their dedication to service. Frerks and 33 of her classmates were selected for membership by their peers for demonstrating humanism during their first three years of training.
It was at the biennial Gold Humanism Honor Society meeting in Chicago last September that she began to see a distinction between humanism and professionalism. “I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re not really the same,” Frerks says, describing professionalism as a duty and humanism as a condition of the heart.
Reversal of Thought
Although the Gold Foundation has been promoting the importance of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient since it was founded in 1988 by Arnold P. Gold, M.D., and his wife, Sandra, the initial chapters of the honor society weren’t formed until 2003.
The University of Minnesota chapter was created in 2004 after Helene Horwitz, Ph.D., the medical school’s dean of students, and John Song, M.D., an assistant professor in the Academic Health Center’s Center for Bioethics, learned about the society at a Gold Foundation conference.
“We’ve been training physicians to be technically competent and proficient but not necessarily compassionate or humanistic,” says Song, who serves as faculty advisor for the honor society. “There’s enough evidence that the public has found us good at medicine and taking care of the person as a patient but not so good at caring for the person as a human being.”
Each year since, the university has admitted between 10 and 15 percent of the incoming fourth-year class to the society. Members have taken part in community service activities such as refurbishing the homeless shelter at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Minneapolis, participating in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, and painting rooms at the Greater Minneapolis Crisis Nursery.
Criteria for Membership in the Gold Humanism Honor Society
In order to identify medical students who should be considered for membership in the Gold Humanism Honor Society, third-year medical students at the University of Minnesota are asked to name up to three classmates:
- Who personify the quote “The secret of good patient care lies in caring for the patient,”
- Who have contributed to the greater community outside the medical school,
- Whom they would want to talk to if they witnessed a disturbing event,
- Whom they would trust to deliver bad news to a patient,
- Who demonstrate respect for colleagues and other members of the health care team, and
- Who they would want to have care for them or a family member.
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This past year, society members organized a pre-Match Day retreat for all graduating students, during which they and faculty shared stories of how working with patients affected their lives. “The goal was to reflect on where we have seen humanism up to this point in our careers, where we have not seen it and how we would act differently, and, as we approach our intern years and future careers, how we can maintain humanism in the daily work we do,” says Frerks, who helped organize the retreat.
Finding the Soft Spot
Song admits that being advisor to the society has helped him in his own family medicine practice. “I’ve learned so much from others who are part of it—the student members, faculty members, residents,” he says. “I’ve noticed wonderful humanistic qualities in these peers and tried to incorporate those qualities into my own behavior,” he says.
One of the most important lessons he’s learned is the importance of listening. “We’re given a lot of training on how to interview a patient,” he says. “But we’re not given as much training on how to listen and allowing for silence and allowing for the patient to direct the interview …. letting the patient have control, have their concerns heard. It’s a large part of providing humanistic care to patients.”
Frerks says developing the habit of humanism takes effort. “You have to be intentional about keeping your heart soft and open when caring for people. If people aren’t intentional, they have a tendency to become cynical about the work they do. It is hard, and it is demanding, but it can be so powerful and so meaningful and so moving.”—Kim Kiser