Health professionals prepared for the future. Why Social Sciences and Humanities teaching in Medical Faculties matter

Abstract

A public debate took place place in France in 2018 concerning ethical and social issues of biomedicine and life science and technologies. As faculty members of French medical schools and scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities, we contributed to introduce the central theme of health professionals education. What roles and what place should we assign to the social sciences and Humanities in preparing health professionals who will work in a transforming and largely unpredictable context? In this paper, we list 4 crucial issues for the present and the future of healthcare profession, concerning changes of medical roles; new biomedical concepts and innovations; long term consequences on health social contract; ethical issues in health care daily life settings. Then, we list 4 kinds of resources that are brought to students by Social Sciences and Humanities courses. They concern the connection to patients's experiences the social and cultural construction of these experiences; the social responsibility of medical doctors; and the independence of their professional judgments. This is a plea for the development of reflexivity and critical thought backed up by well identified, well integrated and sufficiently developed Social Sciences and Humanities courses in French medical schools.

Keywords

• Social Sciences and Humanities
• France
• curriculum development
• reflexivity
• critical thinking
• Social roles