Moula Zoe, Bull Stephanie, Okantey Naa, Brown Megan, Edleston Victoria, Crawford Maisie, Sawchuk Sandra, Moniz Tracy
Department of Care in Long Term Conditions, King's College London, UK.
Medical Education Innovation & Research Centre (MEdIC), Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
Perspect Med Educ. 2025 May 19;14(1):296-308. doi: 10.5334/pme.1506. eCollection 2025.
Arts and humanities are often positioned as 'additive' to medical education, rather than 'intrinsic'. They are also used to teach skills and perspective-taking more than utilising their transformative potential to propel personal insight and social advocacy. There is, therefore, a need for more meaningful and strategic integration of the arts in medical curricula. Existing reviews combine and engagement, although these methods represent different magnitudes of engagement.
This review aimed to synthesise the use of arts engagement in undergraduate medical curricula internationally. We searched seven databases for articles published between 1991-2024.
We reviewed 134 studies conducted in 27 countries (total n = 10,700). Most programs were medium-intensity (e.g., standalone modules), used visual and performing arts, and aimed to foster skills mastery, perspective-taking, and personal insight. Studies on artmaking for social advocacy were lacking, as was data about program evaluation and learner assessment. Almost all survey instruments used were unvalidated.
Studies of active arts engagement are disproportionately low compared to receptive engagement, signaling missed opportunities to leverage the benefits of the arts. Most studies were conducted in high-income countries, illuminating that lower-income countries do not have a strong voice in the knowledge exchange. To avoid devaluing the arts in medical curricula, we suggest that medical educators: a) direct attention to creative opportunities to engage students with social advocacy; b) collaborate with arts/humanities professionals and international medical educators; c) consider more meaningful and strategic integrations of active arts engagement into medical curricula, approaching them with the same rigor as other medical education programs to maximise their pedagogical potential.
艺术与人文在医学教育中常被视为“附加物”，而非“内在组成部分”。相较于利用其变革潜力推动个人洞察力和社会倡导，它们更多地被用于传授技能和培养换位思考能力。因此，需要在医学课程中更有意义、更具策略性地融入艺术。现有综述将参与艺术活动和艺术欣赏结合在一起，尽管这些方法代表了不同程度的参与。
本综述旨在综合国际上本科医学课程中艺术参与活动的使用情况。我们在七个数据库中搜索了1991年至2024年发表的文章。
我们回顾了在27个国家进行的134项研究（总计n = 10700）。大多数项目强度中等（例如，独立模块），使用视觉艺术和表演艺术，旨在培养技能掌握、换位思考和个人洞察力。缺乏关于社会倡导艺术创作的研究，也缺乏项目评估和学习者评估的数据。几乎所有使用的调查工具都未经验证。
与接受性参与相比，积极艺术参与的研究比例极低，这表明错失了利用艺术益处的机会。大多数研究在高收入国家进行，这说明低收入国家在知识交流中没有强大的话语权。为避免在医学课程中贬低艺术，我们建议医学教育工作者：a）直接关注让学生参与社会倡导的创造性机会；b）与艺术/人文专业人员和国际医学教育工作者合作；c）考虑将积极艺术参与更有意义、更具策略性地融入医学课程，以与其他医学教育项目相同的严谨态度对待它们，以最大限度地发挥其教学潜力。
