Acad Med. 1999 May;74(5):516-20. doi: 10.1097/00001888-199905000-00017.

Toward creating physician-healers: fostering medical students' self-awareness, personal growth, and well-being.

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

D H Novack, R M Epstein, R H Paulsen

PMID: 10353283 DOI: 10.1097/00001888-199905000-00017

Abstract

To restore the "humanism" in medical care, medical education needs to espouse the goal of creating physician-healers. Critical, and often neglected, factors in healing are the personal development and well-being of the healer. Unexamined attitudes and biases and personal stress can interfere with patient care. Personal awareness and well-being can contribute to physicians' using their emotional reactions to patients for their patients' benefit. The authors suggest goals and objectives for medical education that can promote trainees' self-awareness, personal growth, and well-being, and comment on how medical educators might achieve and evaluate these goals and objectives.

MeSH terms

• Awareness*
• Education, Medical / standards
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
• Humans
• Physician-Patient Relations*
• Students, Medical / psychology

Publication Types

• Journal Article
• Review