Advancing flourishing as the north star of medical education: A call for personal and professional development as key to becoming physicians

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, multiple calls to transform medical education, and by extension, health sciences education, have addressed issues pertaining to learners' subjective experiences as well as the learning environment. By and large, these calls to transform share many of the same themes: greater engagement with the humanities, enhanced professional identity formation, leadership development, as well as systemic changes to enhance meaning, purpose, and belonging. However, the many initiatives and reforms underway in medical education have yet to fully reach their desired outcomes - particularly those focused on enhancing meaning, purpose, and belonging. We suggest that calls to transform medical education can be unified and guided by focusing on the promotion of human flourishing. Briefly, we define human flourishing as an aspirational objective enabling one to reach a state of 'wholeness-of being and doing, of realizing one's potential and helping others do the same.' We share our implications of a flourishing guided medical education journey for medical students, residents, and faculty.

Keywords: Curriculum; character development; human flourishing; professional identity.