Humanistic education and medical education

Abstract

Historical changes in the social and ethic meaning of medical practice as well as in humanistic thinking of philosophers and social scientists have make it difficult to propose conceptual contents for some humanistic medical education. Such education is the product of personal experiences of each student and implies the consciousness of his system of values, wich results from such experiences. It also implies the consciousness of the patient as another creator of values, and whose reactions to medical care depends on the meanings he has associated to life, to illness, to medical treatment. The Teachers in a medical school, can only otfer an indirect contribution to humanistic improvement of students, through opportunities for discussing humanistic subjects and examples of true respect to their own values and to those of their patients.