Healthcare Management and the Humanities: An Invitation to Dialogue

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Medical Humanities
• Organizational Studies

Background:

• Growing recognition of humanities' value in medicine and organization studies.
• Healthcare management has not yet explored the potential of humanities.
• This paper bridges this gap by examining humanities' role in healthcare management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential role of humanities in healthcare management.
• To identify actionable strategies for integrating humanities into the field.
• To encourage interdisciplinary dialogue between humanities and healthcare management.

Main Methods:

• Perspective paper analyzing three key areas: lived experiences, "tyranny of metrics," and anxiety.
• Identifying actionable approaches for curriculum development, scholarship, and management practices.
• Discussing potential risks and benefits of interdisciplinary synthesis.

Main Results:

• The humanities can illuminate lived management experiences, challenge excessive reliance on metrics, and help confront organizational anxiety.
• Actionable strategies include developing critical scholarship, novel curricula, alternative assessments, and guidelines for managing stress and burnout.
• An interdisciplinary approach offers a prospective synthesis for healthcare management.

Conclusions:

• Integrating humanities offers significant potential to enrich healthcare management scholarship, education, and practice.
• Addressing lived experiences, metrics, and anxiety through humanities can lead to more effective and humane healthcare organizations.
• Further interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration are crucial for realizing the full benefits.