Selecting humanities for enriching experiences & skill-building

Medical students at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine have opportunities to select from five Humanities in Medicine selectives:

• “The Human Element: A Series in the Healing Arts” — Workshops in storytelling, poetry, spoken word, narrative medicine, visual arts, music therapy, theater, presence and other humanities topics.
• “Looking at Art: A Way Into Seeing Patients and Self” — Essential skill-building for physicians including visual literacy (observation skills), critical thinking and language to express what individuals see, active listening and collaborative problem-solving, by looking at art and engaging in discussions that make the experience meaningful.
• “Where I’m From: The Hospital as a Microcosm” — Exploration of the ways that culture, identity and narrative shape lived realities and diverse experiences of healing.
• “Serious Play: Learning from Improvisational Theater to Deepen Therapeutic Connections and Collaboration in Medical Settings” — Medical improv class based on principles of improvisational theater to help participants develop skills to deliver humanistic patient care, connect with peers and experience a creative approach to self-care.
• “Poetry in Medicine” — Exploration of the evolving relationship between poetry and illness, as well as the therapeutic efficacy of writing to holistic healing.

Kathleen Van Buren, Ph.D., Director of Humanities in Medicine, states:

“Humanities in Medicine selectives provide students with a unique opportunity to learn from arts and humanities scholars, professional arts practitioners, and physicians who engage in arts and humanities activities for personal enjoyment or clinical practice. Through these differing perspectives, students gain practical skills in areas such as creative expression, communication and innovation, and an understanding of how arts and humanities approaches can contribute to their well-being and to their clinical work. They learn not only that arts and humanities are relevant to their personal and professional lives, but also that engaging in creative processes may in fact make them better physicians. Numbers of students who participate in Humanities in Medicine selectives range from five to 17 per course.”

THE POWER OF IMPROV

T.N. Diem Vu, M.D. (MED ’16, S ’21, CCMS ’22), Division of Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, participated in “Humanities for the Physician in Training” during her first year of medical school in 2013, along with “The Practice of Narrative Medicine” (offered in 2012) and “Medical Illustration” (offered in 2013).

“I consider myself a very introverted person and would’ve described my discomfort level with the concept of improv as a 10,” she says. “But, in medical school, I quickly saw that medical training and practice require many moments of extroversion — presenting patients on rounds in a room full of people, presenting research at local and national conferences, and taking command and leading a healthcare team in high-stakes situations. I thought the improv selective would be a way to practice coming out of my shell.”

After the selective, and now eight years after completing medical school, Dr. Vu describes her discomfort level with improv as a seven. “It didn’t turn me into an extrovert, but it made me more comfortable with the discomfort of public speaking and situations that require quick thinking.

“In trauma, we often get notification that a patient is en route from the scene of an accident. We have little information about the patient, and a roomful of virtual strangers has to prepare for anything that is thrown at us. The trauma surgeon has to take command of the group in a scary, unknown situation. The ‘Humanities for the Physician in Training’ selective taught me to embrace the improv mantra of ‘yes and’ — not being able to say no or I don’t want to do this. It helped me learn to face challenges head on, think on my feet and prepare for the discomfort of the kind of uncertainty we face in trauma situations.”

Dr. Vu says the training also helped her become more comfortable having difficult conversations and explaining complex concepts to patients and their families on the worst days of their lives.

“Being exposed to humanities — nonscientific, nonmedical areas of living — enriches your experiences so you can find things in common with patients. Through Humanities in Medicine selectives, I got to explore other perspectives, practice empathy and think about ways I can connect to others. The program exposes you to other life experiences through stories, painting and performances, which helps you step into other people’s shoes.

“I was recently involved in a care conference for a patient who wasn’t doing well. Experience in humanities helped me read the emotion in the room when I spoke with the family, use analogies and metaphors in explaining the medical issues, and be as sensitive as I can be in delivering bad news.”

GOOD STORYTELLING

Jeremy Cutsforth-Gregory, M.D. (MED ’10, I1 ’11, N ’14, MD ’15, NAUD ’16), Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, was in the first Mayo medical school class to be offered Humanities in Medicine selectives. He participated in a previous offering, “Telling the Patient’s Story”, which used artists from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis to teach storytelling skills through improvisation, writing, movement and acting exercises.

“When we get bogged down in administrative tasks, dictation of notes and rounding on patients, it can be easy to forget that each one pertains to a real person,” he says. “Good storytelling in medicine includes keeping the patient in what we say about them — Ms. Smith is an active right-handed pickleball player who lives in a metropolitan area, for example. That uses precise language to keep the person front and center in our day-to-day work and helps to ensure that the patient isn’t just another note or room to visit but is, instead, a real person every time.”

Dr. Cutsforth-Gregory, who is a member of the Humanities in Medicine subcommittee in Rochester, notes that many physicians and scientists don’t have formal training in humanities courses in college because they focus on the accelerated pace of medical and scientific training. Humanities offerings at Mayo Clinic help them connect science to people and learn to appreciate storytelling and communication through observational skills.

Along with colleagues, Dr. Cutsforth-Gregory wrote a paper that was published in “Medical Humanities” in 2011, covering the results of a study on the effectiveness of the “Telling the Patient’s Story” course. The paper focused on assessing the value of theater training to improve medical students’ case presentation skills:

“There was unanimous agreement (among participants) that a doctor’s ability to present a clear case history is critical to the practice of medicine, and that good doctor–patient communication in the medical interview can improve efficacy, enhance compliance and improve patient outcomes… . All students agreed that learning theater performance techniques improved their delivery of patient histories, corresponding with increases in students’ self-rating of competence.”

“Caring for patients involves listening to and retelling their stories in the ways that allow us to diagnose and treat their specific needs,” Dr. Cutsforth-Gregory said. “Medical humanities and storytelling have been the vehicles carrying the patient through everything I do as a Mayo Clinic physician, scientist and educator.”

This article appeared in issue two of our 2024 Mayo Clinic Alumni Magazine. Read the full issue and learn more about the impact of Humanities in Medicine here.