LiberalArtsOnline Vol. 2, No. 2
February 2002
Michael McGrath
Coordinator of Inquiries
Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College
Ideal medical practice can best be described as an art based on science, since it should take into account all aspects of the human condition, not merely the organ system that is damaged. This description of the skills needed by a physician means that a strong scientific background is an essential, but not sufficient, condition for the proper education of future physicians. That extra dimension separating the true healer from the mere technician is best supplied by a strong undergraduate liberal arts education.
A student who has grappled with the eternal questions posed by philosophers and wrestled vicariously with the moral dilemmas dramatized by great novelists is much more open to the true complexities inherent in much of medical decision making. Moreover, the advances of modern medical science have opened up a vast array of treatment possibilities which were previously unthinkable, but which also have spawned a multitude of difficult ethical dilemmas.
The ethical decisions that will withstand the test of time need to be made by physicians and scientists who know much more than the scientific principles underlying a new procedure. They must have a deep understanding of the values which undergird civilization and an appreciation of what it means to be truly human. My thirty years of experience teaching and advising premedical students and my extensive interactions with medical schools on projects like the Kaiser Foundation's General Education of Physicians Study have convinced me that this understanding comes best from a broad exposure to our cultural roots, such as that found in a liberal arts education.
Furthermore, it is my strong contention that an undergraduate education that focuses too much on the scientific background of future physicians at the expense of their artistic and aesthetic development is seriously deficient. Contrary to what most physicians would like us to believe, medicine is not an exact science. I don't mean that as a criticism of medicine; I simply mean the parameters involved in making a medical decision are much more difficult to control than those of a typical laboratory experiment. Thus doctors must often make decisions with limited data, or even with contradictory indicators. This means they must develop a "toleration for ambiguity," allowing them to act in the patient's best interest, even without perfect data.
A liberal arts education which exposes doctors to abstract concepts such as those found in literature, religion, or philosophy courses is an ideal vehicle for instilling this important quality. The ability to analyze and synthesize such abstract ideas can dramatically increase their comfort in dealing with situations that are not completely quantifiable. An education steeped in the humanities also continuously reminds them that each decision has a human dimension as well as a scientific one.
I certainly am not alone in my contention that topics central to a liberal arts education are important in the education of physicians. Since Penn State founded the first Department of Humanities in a medical school in 1967, almost one third of U.S. medical schools, including Rochester and Duke, have founded similar departments, offering courses in literature, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and ethics related to medicine. Even those schools without a specific department offer individual electives in these areas.
This is clear evidence they share my concern for the importance of the liberal arts and humanities in educating our future physicians. They clearly understand that the scientific skills they are teaching must be wedded to the humane understanding of the variability that makes up civilized life. It is this combination of modern science and the nuanced appreciation of the human condition developed through the liberal arts that produces the ideal physician.
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LiberalArtsOnline is an occasional email essay on the liberal arts, provided as a public service of the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts.
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The comments published in LiberalArtsOnline reflect the opinions of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Center of Inquiry or Wabash College. Comments may be quoted or republished in full, with attribution to the author, LiberalArtsOnline, and the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts.