The Health Humanities Program provides support to SJBSM in recognizing the importance of humanism and selfless service, moving forward with activities to promote our institutional community engagement efforts. We believe that integration of the arts and humanities in medicine and the health professions will have better outcomes in empathy, resilience, and teamwork. It will also help in the development of visual diagnostic skills, tolerance for ambiguity, interest in communication skills, ethical decision making, sensitivity towards diversity, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings.
Health Humanities is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field rooted in literature, philosophy, ethic, history, religion, visual, and performing arts, recognized as fundamental in the formation of health care professionals. The Health Humanities Program at San Juan Bautista School of Medicine aims to create opportunities for interaction and enrichment of the people that constitute our community: learners, faculty, administration, patients, families, and community. The program includes initiatives to:
- promote diversity and inclusion,
- education in the health humanities,
- art therapy and the applied arts and
- Health humanities research.
Why Health Humanities?
- Professionals must be technically proficient in their disciplines and demonstrate critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and abilities for lifelong learning.
- Health Professions Education Curricula focused only science and medicine.
- Challenge of preparing learners for life-long learning in complex, diverse and evolving societies.
- Students pressured by demanding studies.
- Limited time and opportunities to be exposed to disciplines that are required to approach, frame, and solve contemporary and increasingly complicated problems, such as:
- Arts
- Philosophy
- Humanities
- Social Sciences
- Need to address diversity and inclusion issues.
- Patients’ request for more empathetic and interested health professionals.
- Integration of the arts and humanities in health professions approaches have been associated with better outcomes in empathy, resilience, teamwork; visual diagnostic skills, tolerance for ambiguity, interest in communication skills, ethical decision making, sensitivity towards diversity and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings that may help graduates to successfully enter the workforce live while are good citizens.
- The number of medical schools incorporating Medical / Health Humanities as elective or required course has increased during the past five years both at international and national level
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Biomedical Sciences
Coordinator, Health Humanities Program
Virtual Education Specialist
Martha Eugenia García Osorio, MD, MSc
mgarcia@sanjuanbautista.edu
(787) 249-2015
