Introduction of Medical Humanities in MBBS 1^st Year

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Medical Humanities
• Soft Skills Development

Background:

• Undergraduate medical students often lack essential patient management skills like empathy, professionalism, and ethics.
• These crucial soft skills are part of the hidden curriculum and not formally taught, leading to a deficit in competent graduates.
• Integrating medical humanities (MH) into early medical curricula can effectively cultivate these necessary soft skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, administer, and evaluate a medical humanities (MH) module for first-year MBBS students.
• To assess the impact of MH on students' awareness, knowledge, and attitudes.
• To gather student and faculty feedback on the module's effectiveness and suitability for integration into the medical curriculum.

Main Methods:

• A standardized, validated MH module comprising three sessions was developed and implemented.
• The module was administered to 150 first-year MBBS students.
• Evaluation involved student and faculty feedback questionnaires with open- and closed-ended questions, analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Main Results:

• The MH module received a high overall rating (mean 4.69), indicating positive reception by students.
• Cinemeducation (session 2) received the highest student grades among the three sessions.
• Faculty feedback strongly supported the need for MH, recommending its introduction for all first-year MBBS batches and longitudinal continuation.

Conclusions:

• The MH module significantly improved students' awareness, knowledge, and attitudes.
• The study results support the implementation of MH modules within undergraduate medical curricula.
• Medical humanities education is crucial for developing well-rounded, competent medical professionals.