Liberal Arts as Preparation for Medicine

By Michael McGrath
From LiberalArtsOnline Volume 2, No. 2

In "Liberal Arts as Preparation for Medicine," Michael McGrath writes that the study of the liberal arts is essential to train future doctors, and reframes the ideal practice of medicine as "an art based on science." To prepare future doctors for the complex decision-making skills they will need, according to McGrath, doctors must first confront the "eternal questions posed by philosophers" and "the moral dilemmas dramatized by great novelists."

McGrath praises programs such as those at Penn State University and Duke University that have humanities departments within their medical schools. In fact, McGrath asserts, an undergraduate education for medical students that focuses exclusively on scientific study is "seriously deficient."

"The ability to analyze and synthesize such abstract ideas can dramatically increase [the students'] comfort level in dealing with situations that are not completely quantifiable," according to McGrath, who notes that medicine is not an exact science. Doctors need to be "comfortable with ambiguity," McGrath writes, and he argues that a liberal education helps doctors prepare to put their knowledge to the best use: "[the] parameters involved in making a medical decision are much more difficult to control than those of a typical laboratory experiment." His thirty years of teaching medical students has convinced him that this understanding comes from the broad base of knowledge only possible with a liberal education.

To view the entire article, visit www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/liberalartsonline/archives/medicine.html.