Windows open: humanities teaching during undergraduate clinical experiences

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Medical Humanities
• Professional Development

Background:

• Humanities education can foster professional growth and improve patient care in nursing.
• Integrating humanities into nursing curricula requires concise and clinically relevant approaches.
• Existing curricula often lack space for comprehensive humanities integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a humanities educational program for undergraduate nursing students.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of integrating humanities into an acute care clinical semester.
• To assess the educational and emotional impact of humanities teaching during clinical experiences.

Main Methods:

• A humanities program was developed for the first acute care clinical semester.
• The program utilized expressive and didactic teaching methods.
• Methods were supported by educational, clinical, or theoretical evidence.

Main Results:

• Student evaluations of the humanities program were uniformly favorable.
• Students provided feedback demonstrating significant educational effects.
• Student feedback also indicated profound emotional effects from the program.

Conclusions:

• Humanities teaching can be effectively integrated into undergraduate nursing curricula.
• Concise, clinically relevant humanities content yields positive educational and emotional outcomes for nursing students.
• This approach facilitates professional growth and potentially improves patient care through enhanced nursing practice.