Charon Rita
R. Charon is professor, Department of Medicine, and executive director, Program in Narrative Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6003-5219.
Acad Med. 2017 Dec;92(12):1668-1670. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000001989.
The author notes the impressive growth in medical humanities programs, scholarly journals, textbooks, and national and international conferences as well as the convening of two recent national forums or boards addressing the potential of the humanities and the arts to improve medical practice. She also notes that the field of medical humanities seems to have shifted from addressing topics on the margins of medical education to equipping students with the foundational skills required for effective doctoring. This Invited Commentary proposes a number of personal, relational, and interpretive consequences to rigorous training in the humanities or the arts that might lead to improvement in the skills of doctoring. Where else but in hospitals with very ill patients and very young doctors who care for them are such skills needed the most? The author suggests that to see the suffering might be what the humanities in medicine are for, and that those who become capable of seeing the suffering around them in medical practice both experience the cost of countenancing the full burden of illness and death and, simultaneously, comprehend with clarity the worth of this thing, this life.
作者指出，医学人文项目、学术期刊、教科书以及国内和国际会议都取得了令人瞩目的发展，近期还召开了两个全国性论坛或委员会会议，探讨人文艺术对改善医疗实践的潜力。她还指出，医学人文领域似乎已从关注医学教育边缘的话题，转向培养学生有效行医所需的基础技能。这篇特邀评论提出了一些个人、人际关系和解释性的结果，这些结果源于在人文或艺术方面的严格训练，可能会提高行医技能。除了在有重病患者和照顾他们的年轻医生的医院，还有哪里最需要这些技能呢？作者认为，看到患者的痛苦可能就是医学中的人文意义所在，那些在医疗实践中能够看到周围痛苦的人，既体会到面对疾病和死亡全部负担的代价，同时也能清晰地理解这种事物、这种生命的价值。
