Q. Eichbaum is professor of pathology, microbiology, and immunology; professor of medical education and administration; director, Vanderbilt Pathology Education Research Group; director, Vanderbilt Pathology Program in Global Health; director, College Colloquium; and clinical fellowship director, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. S. Reid is professor of primary health care and director, Primary Health Care Directorate, University of Cape Town Medical School, Cape Town, South Africa. A. Coly is associate professor of comparative literature and associate professor of African and African American studies, Department of African and African American Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. T. Naidu is lecturer, Department of Behavioral Medicine, Nelson R. Mandela University School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. F. Omaswa is chancellor, Busitema University, Mbale, Uganda.
Acad Med. 2019 Aug;94(8):1108-1114. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002789.
The role of the humanities in medical education remains a topic of dynamic debate in medical schools of high-income countries. However, in most low- and middle-income countries, the medical humanities are less topical and rarely even have a place in the curriculum. Reasons for this dearth include inadequate resources to support such programs coupled with misapprehension of the role and significance of the humanities in medical education.In this article, the authors argue that the humanities have a vital role to play in the low-resource settings of African medical education. They discuss the complexities of the continent's sociohistorical legacies, in particular the impact of colonization, to provide contexts for conceptualizing humanities programs in African schools. They outline the challenges to developing and implementing such programs in the continent's underresourced medical schools and present these as four specific conundrums to be addressed. As a general guide, the authors then suggest four nonprescriptive content domains that African medical schools might consider in establishing medical humanities programs.The goal is to jump-start a crucial and timely discussion that will open the way for the feasible implementation of contextually congruent humanities programs in the continent's medical schools, leading to the enhanced education, training, and professional development of its graduating physicians.
人文科学在医学教育中的作用仍然是高收入国家医学院校中一个充满活力的辩论话题。然而，在大多数低收入和中等收入国家，医学人文学科的关注度较低，甚至很少在课程中占有一席之地。造成这种缺乏的原因包括支持这些项目的资源不足，以及对人文科学在医学教育中的作用和意义的误解。在本文中，作者认为人文科学在非洲医学教育的资源匮乏环境中具有至关重要的作用。他们讨论了非洲大陆复杂的社会历史遗产，特别是殖民化的影响，为在非洲学校中构思人文科学项目提供了背景。他们概述了在该大陆资源匮乏的医学院校中开发和实施此类项目所面临的挑战，并将这些挑战呈现为需要解决的四个具体难题。作为一般指南，作者随后提出了非洲医学院校在建立医学人文学科项目时可以考虑的四个非规范性内容领域。目标是启动一场至关重要和及时的讨论，为在非洲大陆医学院校中可行地实施与背景相符的人文科学项目开辟道路，从而提高其毕业医生的教育、培训和专业发展水平。
