Case Report
How do Medical Students Respond to the Concept of Compassion without Being Cued on its Importance? What is the Role of Compassion in Medicine, Medical Education and Training?
Janet Lynn Roseman*, Arif M. Rana
Nova Southeastern University, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Abstract
Objective: The role of compassion is usually not well addressed in medical education. Several scenarios of breast cancer and the use of medical informatics were presented to the participants without referring to the progression of the disease as anything but stages without identifiable human beings possessing the ?disease?. The purpose of this study was to find out how medical students would respond to the omission of pertinent patient information that would create a holistic model of a ?person? including mind and body. Materials and Methods: Two presentations were given to 25 participants. All participants were second year medical students. The first half of the presentation was on the ?Role of Informatics in Detecting Breast Cancer? (Dr. Rana) while the second half of the presentation was on the topic of ?The Compassionate Physician? (Dr. Roseman). After the informatics section of the presentation, the participants were asked to fill out a brief survey with 9 questions. Participation in the questionnaire was anonymous. The questionnaire examined students? perceptions of whether the informatics portions of the presentation ignored cultural and compassionate aspects of the cases discussed, and asked participants to identify the importance of compassion in the medical encounter. Results: Out of the 25 participant?s responses, only 16% (n =4) indicated that there needed to be a more humanistic approach to the presentation. Few participants identified the importance of compassion in the patient/physician encounter; none of them were aware of the purposeful removal of any form of ?compassion? from the presentation or identified this omission as problematic. Discussion: Most medical students are so used to scientific presentations that support the deeply instilled philosophy in the medical culture that views patients as ?their disease?. Although, medical students indicate a keen awareness of the importance of ?compassion? for patients, they were not able to identify the lack of ?compassion?. Conclusion: Medical school training for the most part perpetuates the patient as ?diagnosis? and thus, medical students are often quite dismissive of the psycho-social aspects of serious illness because its relevancy is not acknowledged as important as clinical expertise. The results of this study emphasize the importance of integrating humanistic physician training into the medical school curriculum.
