ODU Digital Commons

The Case for Bringing the Medical Humanities to ODU

Learning Commons @ Perry Library Conference Room 1310

On average, physicians let their patients speak only 14 seconds before interrupting them during their physical exam and patient interview. Regardless of what contributes to this breakdown in communication, studies have shown that a physician’s success or failure in communicating with their patient directly correlates with the patient’s level of compliance in their treatment. If the patient is made aware of the reasoning behind their treatment, if they are involved in the decision-making process, if they are led to the physician’s conclusion in their care, their likelihood for compliance in their treatment is 2.16 times higher than if their physician is a poor communicator. This, in conjunction with the already troubling projections of physician shortfall, leave opportunities for a singular creative solution to solve both issues: petition more diverse applicants to medical school with stronger backgrounds in communication skills. In this paper, I outline how ODU can improve upon the foundation already laid by several other universities who have previously established medical humanities programs. ODU has several options to develop a medical humanities program that aims to instill greater communication skills in their pre-medical students as well as attempt to encourage students from more diverse majors to pursue careers in medicine, each of which I outline. I explain the pros and cons of several programs currently in existence and I make my case for how ODU can use these programs as a template in the creation of their own program. I also introduce a course, with many of the same objectives as the medical humanities program, that can be implemented first and eventually expanded into ODU’s medical humanities program.