Medical students are hungry for the humanities. Unfortunately, it’s not commonly included in their learning curricula.
One professor, Dr. Dawn Schocken, PhD, MPH, is changing that.
Last year, Dawn was accepted to our Certified Listener Poets course. Each week after class, the eight third-year medical students in her Friday afternoon mentee group asked about what she was learning. They were captivated. “It’s so different from what we’re doing on service right now,” they said.
Dawn began teaching them snippets of the practices from our course. She described our techniques of holding space for someone, listening to them, then writing a reflective poem based on the conversation and presenting it back to them.
“It’s so different from what we’re doing on service right now.”
The students started spontaneously breaking off and doing it on their own with other medical student friends on service with them.
One day, they came to her with a request. Their application to create an official “special interest group,” complete with a school-sponsored budget, had been approved. Would she be their faculty advisor?
Twenty-five students attended the kickoff meeting for “The Poets Group.” It wasn’t just members of her own eight-person Friday group; the word had spread. Members, including third- and fourth year medical students, who were making dates to listen to and write for each other at coffee shops and in their apartments.
Throughout the semester, the club members have continued to get together in monthly meetings to talk about what they find using the Listener Poet lens. Students hear each others’ poems, then discuss. “Why did you choose those words?” they ask. “That’s what the patient said!” they answer. “Wow, I’ve never heard a patient say that!” they reply, amazed.
“They’re able to explore a side of themselves that tends to get punted because of the busyness of the world they live in,” said Dawn. “They’re more engaged in learning about and experiencing the humanity of medicine.”
“Wow, I’ve never heard a patient say that!”
We're very excited by what Dawn is pioneering at University of South Florida. If you're inspired to bring a similar program to your medical, nursing, or other school for healthcare professionals, we’d love to hear from you. Please use this form to schedule a conversation with a member of the TGLP education team, or click the button below to learn more about our Certified Listener Poet course.
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If you have questions or if you would like to support good listening in your healthcare community, we would love to hear from you.