Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Dec;28(1):2182691.
doi: 10.1080/10872981.2023.2182691.

Exploration and practice of humanistic education for medical students based on volunteerism

Lizhi Chen  1 , Jiayi Zhang  2 , Yingjun Zhu  2 , Jie Shan  1 , Luxian Zeng  3
Affiliations
Review

Exploration and practice of humanistic education for medical students based on volunteerism

Lizhi Chen et al. Med Educ Online. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Humanistic education aims to promote educated people's practical and conscious activities to enhance their humanity, cultivate ideal personalities, and realize personal and social values, to develop a humanistic spirit. The advancement of higher education in China has led to the proposal to strengthen scientific and humanistic education integration. Medicine is between science and humanities, shouldering the important task of training senior medical personnel, the quality of medical students will affect the quality of future medical and health work; thus, medical students must explore and practice humanistic education. Promoting and practicing volunteerism is a specific act of constructing spiritual civilization in the whole society, and it is also considered beneficial for improving citizens' sense of responsibility and dedication. Medical students' practice of volunteerism and help in society is a precise manifestation of humanistic care. This review summarizes medical students' exploration and practice of humanistic education in volunteering.

Keywords: Medical student; humanistic education; humanities; practice; volunteerism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Five features of the humanities program at American medical schools.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Erwin CJ. Development of a medical humanities and ethics certificate program in Texas. J Med Humanit. 2014;35:389–10. - PubMed
    1. Hoff G, Hirsch NJ, Means JJ, et al. A call to include medical humanities in the curriculum of colleges of osteopathic medicine and in applicant selection. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2014;114:798–804. - PubMed
    1. Reid S. The ‘medical humanities’ in health sciences education in South Africa. S Afr Med J. 2014;104:109–110. - PubMed
    1. Na BJ, Hur Y, Yun J, et al. Using a medical volunteer program to motivate medical freshmen. Korean J Med Educ. 2013;25:239–243. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rosen MA, DiazGranados D, Dietz AS, et al. Teamwork in healthcare: key discoveries enabling safer, high-quality care. American Psychologist. 2018;73:433–450. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources