Humanism and Professionalism for Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellows (HP-PHO)

Abstract

Abstract Humanistic physicians display attributes including integrity, excellence, compassion, altruism, respect, empathy, and commitment to service. Even though humanism and professionalism are timeless virtues and intrinsic to the practice of medicine, fellowship curricula infrequently include these topics. Instead, fellows most commonly learned humanism and professionalism informally. Barriers to more widespread teaching of humanism and professionalism include the small size of most pediatric fellowships, the limited time of program directors for curriculum development, and the lack of faculty with sufficient teaching expertise in these areas. In response to this notable gap in fellowship training, we adapted a previously-published intervention to yield a novel curriculum in humanism and professionalism for pediatric hematology-oncology fellows. The new curriculum includes case-based, small-group discussion sessions highlighting content areas of greatest interest to fellows. Each session begins with a case designed to trigger reflection about a topic relevant to humanism and professionalism. Fellow participants then engage in 1 hour of confidential, facilitated discussion with guidance from trained faculty members who pose discussion questions to the group and ensure that each session's objectives are met. Related readings are sent following each session and both fellows and the faculty facilitators are given the opportunity to evaluate each session using an electronic evaluation form. This resource includes a slide set used to orient faculty facilitators and materials for each of the four sessions in the curriculum.

Keywords

• Reflection
• Curriculum
• Professionalism
• Humanism
• Pediatrics
• Hematology