The Healer’s Art

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

·     Make an active commitment to strengthening and preserving their humanity

·     Experience the effects of listening generously and compassionately

·     Experience the effects of being listened to generously and compassionately

·     Experience healing relationships with other students

·     Experience tools of self-remembering

·     Identify effective and ineffective behavioral responses to loss and grief

·     Identify when they first became aware of wanting to serve others

·     Articulate and strengthen a personal commitment to medicine as their life’s work

·     Experience practicing physicians sharing their experiences of loss, grief, mystery, and awe in practicing medicine

·     Witness the unity of commitment to service that lies beneath the diversity of expertise and experience

The Healer’s Art is a 15-hour course for second semester M1 students and M2 students that combines seed talks and experiential exercises in a large group setting along with small group experiential exercises. The course engages students in a discovery model or community of inquiry focusing on the meaning of physicianhood and the practice of medicine. Faculty participates in the discovery model process on an equal footing with students as well as facilitating the process of the small groups. The course is designed to encourage medical students to trust the power of listening and presence to heal, formulate a personal, comfortable, and compassionate response to loss, experience the healing power of grief, recognize that who they are is as important to the healing relationship as what they know, recognize awe and mystery in the daily practice of medicine, explore the concept of calling, write a personal mission statement, and explore the personal meaning of physicianhood. The Healer’s Art facilitates students in clarifying, strengthening, and making a personal commitment to medicine as their life’s work. Students also have the opportunity to explore their personal values, and commit to developing and preserving their personal values, such as service, harmlessness, compassion, altruism, self-care, equality, justice, respect, and nurturing wholeness.