Umena Hassan

Dissertation Abstract

Creativity, as a vital and innate ability has been guided by arts and humanities and have steered breakthroughs in all disciplines. Creativity is an experience it can be generated through practice it is a knowledge which depends upon not only its expression but the medium and materiality and primarily on social interaction. ( Kakkar & Blamberger, 2015 ) .Medical Humanities encompasses a broad spectrum of academics. It refers to education as well as practical interventions in training of medical professionals. It encompasses the fields of literature, arts, history of medicine and bioethics. Evans defined MH as ―an integrated, interdisciplinary, philosophical approach to recording and interpreting human experiences of illness, disability, and medical intervention. It typically consists of a blend of disciplines from Creative Arts, Cultural studies, Philosophy ,History , Literature to Sociology . Medical practice, making art and learning humanistic studies are all learnt through acute observation and multi-dimensional perception, yet the view of artists and doctors, and the way they situate themselves can be very different. By bringing two populations together wonders can be expected (Kelli and Jay, 2012). In West , the medical education has started to recognize the potential of integration and have given significant importance to Medical Humanities in their curriculum in undergraduate education .

In Pakistan, no such thing is happening .Our educational systems and their progress have not been supportive of independent and innovative forms of thought and practice, that blends creativity well with education, The current medical curriculum is static and devoid of any such interventions to harness critical ,innovative methodologies to foster creative process and making of emotionally intelligent , empathic doctors who can build better connections with society and transform it .

This study deals with the rationale of the integration of Humanities and creative arts into medical formative years. i.e. undergraduate level medical education .for that the researcher developed an instrument based on the previous studies and literature and outcomes of Arts and humanities. The respondents were medical educationists from Lahore affiliated with three major government medical colleges, King Edward Medical University, Fatima Jinnah Medical College and Allama Iqbal Medical College. They all agreed that effective Community development , developing and understanding ethics, plurality ,cultural insights , self- other relationships , the role of communication and reflection importance of empathy , positions of dialogues and debates , Engagement with patients , Creativity, Research culture ,curiosity , metaphors, observation, holistic approach , and critical thinking are required in effective and transformative practice and should be taught in medical education in Pakistan .The practice education and research lacks in these abilities and its direly needed and that steps should be taken to improve them . The study requested their views and perceptions about those basic elements . Another part of the research dealt with document analysis from Bristol Medical College UK which has integrated medical humanities as a mandatory course into their undergraduate studies, The researcher also had a conversation with Dr. Trevor Thompson who is heading the medical humanities department there .He marveled at the outcomes of integrated medical curriculum and highly recommended it .

The results of the study indicated that Creative Arts and Humanities should be integrated into the medical curriculum of Pakistan .Art educators should initiate the process by designing workshops and inviting medical colleges for collaboration as starters , taking the Arts further into other disciplines , engaging it in its true potential, beyond the walls of art intuitions and galleries , providing bridges within the fractured communities of knowledge starkly divided into parallel disciplines which cannot intersect without the joint effort for the benefit of the community and working to re-engage the fragmentary ways of knowledge acquisition.