The general surgery residency at WashU Medicine now offers an opportunity for trainees to participate in a program focused on arts and the humanities.
The Good Surgeon project aims to explore humanistic and reflective dimensions of surgical practice through a year-long curriculum that includes literature, narrative medicine, artwork and other mediums from across the humanities.
“Through the Good Surgeon project, we’re trying to restore a sense of meaning and purpose behind what we do as surgeons,” said Kathryn Rowland, MD, director of the Center for Humanism and Ethics in Surgical Specialties at WashU Medicine. “We will use the humanities to explore the experiences of surgeons and patients, helping us reconnect with the enduring questions and big ideas we should consider as surgeons.”
Rowland, who also serves as director of the pediatric surgery fellowship, is leading the project at WashU Medicine alongside Matthew Rosengart, MD, MPH, who serves as director of resident research for the general surgery residency.
WashU Medicine is among six institutions participating in a pilot of the Good Surgeon project, which was developed at Duke University.
“Many students tell me that they don’t like the people they are becoming when they are in medical school and residency,” said Ryan Antiel, MD, MSME, an associate professor of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the Good Surgeon project, who completed pediatric surgery fellowship at WashU Medicine. “I believe that most students go into medicine for altruistic reasons. They develop a broad medical knowledge and technical competency. But they don’t pay attention to how residency is forming their character, partly because it is not emphasized, but partly because they simply don’t have the time. And by the time they complete their training, they step back and realize that they don’t like who they have become in the process.”
The program includes a series of dinners and retreats during which residents and faculty discuss readings and other materials from the curriculum. Participants will complete short surveys and interviews at the start and end of the program, which will contribute to ongoing research about the impact of the program on surgical residents.
Related: Rowland named director of Center for Humanism in Surgical Specialties>>