Perception of Medical Humanities among Polish Medical Students: Qualitative Analysis

Marta Makowska, Agnieszka J. Szczepek, Inetta Nowosad, Anna Weissbrot-Koziarska and Joanna Dec-Pietrowska ()
Additional contact information
Marta Makowska: Department of Economic Psychology, Kozminski University, Jagiellońska 57, 03-301 Warszawa, Poland
Agnieszka J. Szczepek: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, 65-046 Zielona Góra, Poland
Inetta Nowosad: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, 65-046 Zielona Góra, Poland
Anna Weissbrot-Koziarska: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Opole, 45-040 Opole, Poland
Joanna Dec-Pietrowska: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, 65-046 Zielona Góra, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Medical humanities (MH) courses are a critical element of the medical curriculum influencing the establishment of a physician in the medical profession. However, the opinion about MH among medical students remains unknown. Interviews from seven focus groups were analysed. The students attended one of three Polish medical schools in Gdansk, Krakow, and Warsaw and were recruited to the discussion focused on the impact of drug manufacturers’ presence at medical universities on socialization in the medical profession. Thematic analysis was conducted using the theoretical framework of social constructivism. The students’ opinions about the MH classes arose during the analysis. In six groups, students thought that MH courses would be helpful in their future medical practice. However, in four groups, different opinion was expressed that MH courses were unnecessary or even “a waste of time”. Factors discouraging students from the MH classes included poorly taught courses (monotonous, uninteresting, unrelated to medical practice, taught by unsuitable lecturers). Secondly, students thought that the time investment in the MH was too extensive. Furthermore, curriculum problems were identified, reflecting the incompatibility between the content of MH courses and teaching semesters. Lastly, some students stated that participation in MH courses should be elective and based on individual interests. Addressing problems recognized in this work could improve the training of future Polish physicians.

Keywords: medical humanities (MH) courses; medical education; medical schools; medical students’ perception university management; focus groups; Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/270/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/270/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:270-:d:1013648

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().