Education Research: The Neurohumanities in Training: Integrating a Humanities Curriculum Within Neurology Residency Programs

Abstract

Background and objectives: Perhaps stemming from the central role of detailed examinations and a focus on the subjective sphere that grounds their clinical practice, neurologists have frequently opined on experiences traditionally a province of humanities. The increasingly technological focus on medical education and care can be seen to devalue the subjective aspects of medicine. As a counter to this, we report on the existence of neurohumanities curricula within neurology residency training.

Methods: We conducted an exploratory descriptive analysis of a convenience sample of 6 neurology residency programs in the United States with neurohumanities curricula. We reported the objectives of each program and feedback from participants. Finally, we described and identified patterns within the curricula and participant feedback.

Results: A shared feature of all programs was recency because all were started within the past decade. Seven sources of variability were timing, target audience, setting, scope of didactics, funding, regional differences, and objectives. The events ranged from mandatory to optional, from fully integrated in residency didactics to extracurricular. While residents were the primary audience across all programs, medical students and faculty were included as optional in some of the curricula. Objectives varied from clinical skill enhancement (e.g., improving observation through art), wellness (e.g., narrative medicine, self-reflection), to the scholarly exploration of the intersection between humanities and neuroscience.

Discussion: Our findings illustrated different ways of integrating humanities into neurology residency training. We highlighted the diverse approaches and objectives adopted by each program, which ranged from pedagogy to wellness. We hope this preliminary study will serve as a first step in the broader assessment of the needs, which neurohumanities curricula can address within neurology training. We also hope that this will lead to more formal assessment of the possible benefits of such implementation, which may include reflecting on clinical practice, debriefing from stressful events, and engaging with humanities.