Research and Humanities in Medical Education (Jun 2015)
Promoting competence in undergraduate medical students through the humanities: The ABCDE Paradigm
Abstract
Stakeholders, including patients and employers, find that skills pertaining to professionalism, humanism, diversity, communication, and ethics are as important for patient care as the doctor’s ability to diagnose and treat illness. Practitioners should be able to demonstrate these skills in real time, yet they are not explicitly taught in the medical course – students are expected to learn them through observation of role models. Some students may never witness such role modeling. Research suggests that the creative instincts of medical students could be utilized through exposure to the humanities to explicitly develop these skills. Medical educators worldwide are examining newer ways to actively train and assess learners in professionalism and related competencies. Using Rudyard Kipling’s “Five Ws and One H” guide to writing a scientific paper, we propose the ABCDE paradigm and demonstrate why it is most appropriate to use the medical humanities to teach professionalism and humanism.
