Postgraduate (Medicine)

Each fall, sessions are organized to bring residents interested in medical/ health humanities together, to discuss common opportunities that exist to support their learning and development as patient-centred, humanistic and professional healthcare practitioners.

Many postgraduate medical programs offer residents and fellows different opportunities to explore arts, humanities and social sciences perspectives into the human condition, illness and suffering, caring and compassion, and the responsiveness of healthcare systems. Although these opportunities vary in number and range, academic half-days, rounds, and journal clubs, will, at times, focus on topics related to ethics, professionalism, and humanism. In some residency programs, residents are invited to suggest topics for these educational sessions.

In many programs, residents can also complete a research elective or scholarly project that explores intersections between the arts, humanities, and medicine, with a view to broadening their intellectual and clinical/ practice-based horizons. Residents who are interested in doing so should contact their program director to explore options that may exist.

Residents interested in being associated with the AHHM program as a medical/ health humanities lead for their residency program are encouraged to inquire about this opportunity by emailing ahhm@ualberta.ca.

The IDEAS Office’s Teaching Scholars Program (TSP) offers courses in teaching and education to support the development of educational scholars within the FoMD by enhancing knowledge and skills in curriculum development, educational scholarship, and academic leadership. In 2012 AHHM joined with the IDEAS Office to introduce a new course called “Fostering Humanism and Professionalism” (TSP 007). This course is based on the curriculum approach and materials developed by Branch et al. (2009) and is aimed at promoting humanistic teaching and role modelling among faculty and residents. For more information about this course, see Faculty Development.