The Meaning of Life: Finding Insights in the Humanities

Last Updated on December 5, 2024 by Laura Turner

Generally, most health professionals thrive on being problem-solvers. When meeting patients, many professionals take on the role of sleuth to diagnose the problems that address the chief complaints. With a toolkit of therapies and therapeutics, health professionals like to come up with the solution, “Take two of these pills and call me in the morning.”

One can only dream of healthcare delivery and outcomes being so simplistic and transactional.

While significant problems demand comprehensive problem-solving approaches (previously covered in How to Engineer a Health Professional Career), health professionals also acknowledge that physicians are more effective when they empathize with the suffering their patients and communities endure.

Since the MCAT started including behavioral and social science content 10 years ago, a growing number of health educators have acknowledged the importance of including more humanities and liberal arts content (AAMC). In addition, world events have created increased polarization and awareness of the differences in worldviews that others hold. Health professionals (and all world citizens) should consider how each person wants to make an impact and build communities that work together despite differences in perspectives and life experiences/journeys. With diversity and inclusion efforts facing backlash, many students and faculty need more tools and confidence to address conflict while maintaining community.

What classes should aspiring health professionals take to find their purpose in effectively comforting and advocating for others’ needs, especially before they start their professional education? While previous articles (see inset below) have recommended specific courses, I introduce a more interdisciplinary framework that is being developed at many community colleges and universities. This framework explains the value of humanities and liberal arts majors in healthcare and the impact of medical humanities on health professional curricula.

Introducing the Great Questions

It’s easy to suggest specific courses and curricula to help prehealth students learn about medical ethics, academic integrity, and social drivers of health. However, students must also gain practical experience working with uncertainty and considering opportunities where their worldviews and assumptions are the minority. In a world where our students rely on a transactional approach to dating, choosing careers, or getting top grades, many applicants avoid confrontation to avoid getting “canceled” or have difficulty processing more critical advice. (See all the “What Are My Chances?” forum threads and discussions about Situational Judgment Tests.) 

Higher education has tried to stem the exodus of students pursuing liberal arts degrees. One of the most innovative solutions has involved integrating liberal arts into science/engineering curricula (the Purdue Cornerstone program) and in community colleges (Austin Community College The Great Questions). In this framework, liberal arts educators identified ten Great Questions and dozens of works of literature or art to shape classroom debates that can authentically discern one’s worldview. New general education courses can be designed to help students consider these questions based on a diverse library of classic texts.

Professors from many disciplines introduce texts with different or challenging worldviews. By comprehending the writers’ meaning and context, students better grasp “academic texts” (such as those on the MCAT CARS). More importantly, these courses give students dedicated time to consider meaningful questions about who they are when building relationships with others—critical concepts in fostering a thriving community among those from different places, cultures, or generations.

Many of these courses are designed as general education courses with a significant reading and writing component (fulfilling the traditional “English composition” requirement). These classes often require personal insights from students that cannot easily be generated with AI tools; in fact, the impact of genAI usage could be part of a class discussion.

Furthermore, the source texts include more than traditional Western Civilization perspectives. A quick view of the library reveals world perspectives and historical texts from marginalized communities.

As prehealth students, you may be very quick to come up with answers to these simple questions, but it is not obvious from reading a transcript if you had a chance to deliberate with others who disagree. Reading from timeless stories or letters published centuries ago about the same topic shows how these questions define human existence. This deep reflection and insight becomes the seed of resilience, empathy, ethics, and interpersonal respect that can be the difference between a clinician and a healer in addressing the world’s suffering.

Additionally, the Great Questions offer an opportunity to show new learners that their quick answers may drastically change with negative experiences and traumas, especially in light of the challenges of caregiver burnout, “ghosting,” and “quiet quitting.” Ask yourself what it would take for someone committed to a career in healthcare to walk away and how their insight into the 10 Great Questions could point to this shift in perspective.

Balancing Science and Art/Humanities in Medical Education

Liberal arts and humanities complete a holistic education and address the pre-professional competencies for successful care. Liberal arts should help students with observation, communication, interpersonal skills, and sometimes kinesthetic skills with those from different backgrounds (such as museum visits from UNC Eschelman School of Pharmacy). Deep reflection is often required to help a professional navigate unclear problems. 

Having early experiences reading these classic texts can help professionals learn more about the art of medicine and the craft of connecting with patients and community needs. Although only some such applicants tend to become healthcare professionals, their insight and approach to handling these Great Questions is welcome.

As you examine your course history, consider how often you have contemplated these questions in depth. How your answers might change as you pursue your professional career? For those already in training or have become established professionals, how often have you taken the time to consider your answers to these questions or discussed them with others? What books or media have shaped your opinions?

What Are You Reading This Summer?

Many interviewing faculty mention they ask candidates about books they have read that impact their view about human nature (and not necessarily about medicine). In addition to the Great Questions library, many programs have curated reading lists for students in the health professions. Read your intended summer reading – or your required New Student Orientation book –  through the lens of these Great Questions as you prepare for any group discussions and reflections. I hope you find the rewards are lifelong.

• All the Great Questions Texts 
• Reading Corner – The Arnold P. Gold Foundation 
• LitMed: Literature Arts Medicine Database 
• Getting Started – Medical Humanities Guide – Library Services at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences 
• Non-Fiction – Medical Humanities and Leisure Reading Collection – LibGuides at University of Nevada, Las Vegas 
• Humanities in Medicine: In-House Book Collection, University of South Carolina  

Websites Cited

• Purdue program works to revive liberal arts as key part of the college experience | PBS News October 21, 2024.
• The Great Questions Foundation, accessed October 29, 2024.
• The Fundamental Role of Arts and Humanities in Medical Education | AAMC, accessed October 29, 2024. 
• The Arts and Medicine | JAMA Network, accessed October 29, 2024.
• Mortha, Sophia M. et al. Assessing Cultural Intelligence in PharmD Education Through Art. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Volume 88, Issue 10, 101275. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpe.2024.101275. Accessed October 29, 2024.