Medical Humanities



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Graduation Competencies

 

Patient Care
Maintain a therapeutic relation
with both your patients and their families
by getting accurate information
through routine procedures and histories.
 
Make a plan based on your diagnosis
that considers your patient’s preference
about how she wants to treat her illness,
yet also based on current evidence.
 
Ensure continuity of her care;
follow up on her progress and outcomes;
ameliorate her pain when it is there
and teach her to avoid future problems.
 
Effective patient care with compassion
will lead to treatment and health’s promotion.
Interpersonal & Communication Skills
Although you may not know from where they come,
or how they may see you or hear your word,
they seek your help and medical wisdom, 
so you should make sure their voices are heard.
 
Show your patient compassion and respect
when their values and beliefs seem foreign.
Medical suggestions should be direct
but in the end, know, it’s her decision.
 
Education and counsel are both part
of a physician’s role as a healer.
Yet neither will you be able to impart,
unless your communication is clear.
 
Communication across boundaries
will allow you to better treat disease.
 
Medical Knowledge
Show knowledge of its structure and function
at the different levels one can study.
From the biochemical to organ,
know the details of the human body.
 
Recognize the differences when altered
by common diseases and conditions
and apply the knowledge you acquired
about illnesses’ manifestations.
 
Use a biosocial model of care,
and norms of epidemiology,
to investigate every affair
and treat what may plague the human body.
 
What medical knowledge encompasses
crosses the wide band of the sciences.
 
Interprofessional Collaboration
Working with those not of your profession
demands an understanding of their goals
and how they may complement your vision
when each one respects the other one’s roles.
 
Communication will be successful
when each side gives a charitable ear
and provides critiques that are respectful
so that the other is willing to hear.
 
Active engagement permits joint effort
while passivity creates aloofness.
Haughty demands make others’ feelings hurt;
a smile will melt anyone’s coldness.
 
Good professional collaboration
begins with everyone being open.
 
Practice Based Learning & Improvement
Take initiative in your own learning,
and let your interests direct your way.
Answers will come only after asking,
understanding from the work of each day.
 
Know the importance of self-improvement;
reflect on all the things you could have done
and surely demonstrate a full commitment
to bettering your skills through instruction.
 
Be a leader but not in the center;
rather, your team should work as one
for the sake of giving patients your care.
They are the focus of the profession.
 
Through proper practice you will progress
to become a doctor of great promise.
 
Systems Based Practice
No longer does one treat patients alone,
nor is illness an intimate affair.
For most, details of health care are unknown;
for quite a few, medicine seems unfair.
 
Yet as an advocate for the patient
you must learn how to navigate the system,
and know that each member is dependent
on the health care team working in tandem.
 
Recognize the barriers to treatment,
cost effectiveness, and patient safety.
Where you see the need strive for improvement,
and always maintain patient quality.
 
Good health care is a collaboration
between many roles with the same mission.
 
Professionalism
The values you hold by your profession
are far more than simply lofty ideals,
for each one affects your occupation,
by virtue of them all your patient heals.
 
A commitment to society’s rule
and an adherence to the ethics code
must be the first act of medical school
when the Hippocratic Oath is echoed.
 
For you to become a professional
it is not enough to know by rote;
only good habits will make you able
and worthy to wear the white doctor’s coat.
 
Part of your formal qualification
includes the morals of the vocation.

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