Music in Healing: Leveraging Classical Music to Promote Medical Humanism Concepts Among First-Year Medical Students

The arts and humanities have recently been recognized as valuable tools in medical education. Despite this, there are few programs that leverage music, and even fewer that leverage classical music, to teach medical humanities concepts. Here, we designed a two-hour session in conjunction with a live classical string quartet to discuss themes related to identity, interprofessional education, active listening, and empathy. A survey consisting of ten statements was administered before and after the session. Fifty-seven first-year medical students participated in the session, and 35 students completed both surveys. Results show that students agreed that the shared experience of listening to music allowed them to practice interpersonal skills, understand the importance of listening in a clinical context, and reflect on their own perspectives and biases. A qualitative thematic analysis of student reflections proved that this exercise allowed for an increased appreciation of classical music as well as gained insight on the importance of empathetic listening in patient care.