Medical Humanities welcomes their new Director
As the incoming director of the medical humanities program at the University of Arizona, I would like to re-introduce you to what I believe is an important aspect of medical school education: understanding the self so as to become a more compassionate and humane practitioner. Begun by Helle Mathiason and further developed by Dan Shapiro, the medical humanities program has, in few short years, obtained national acclaim (most notably, through the Video Slam Project) while giving the student a venue in which to explore the parts of the brain that may have become atrophic through the grind of the typical medical school curriculum. Don’t worry; I’m not here to reinvent the wheel, but to enhance an already successful program with a couple of new ideas. While programs such as Art Aloud, Tuesdays with Donna, and Monday Movie Madness will continue as scheduled, I plan on using my background in personal essay writing (MFA, U of A, ‘04) to create more opportunities for self-exploration, particularly through the chronicling of the student’s experience as he or she begins to practice clinical medicine. It is this experience that I believe will create a more rounded practitioner, hopefully improving the status and future of health care in the twenty-first century.
As I transition into Helle’s and Dan’s position, I look forward to working with those of you interested in continuing the innovation they started, hopefully making its breadth wider and more available to the entire health care population. I look forward to involving more individuals, hearing their thoughts and listening to their suggestions. And I look forward to the most important thing of all: making the medical school educational experience one that uses all parts of the brain—including those that have long remained dormant.
Ron Grant, a pediatric hospitalist at UMC, is a professor of creative nonfiction (Pima CC, Univ of AZ, Prague Summer Program), as well as being an author of personal essays that have appeared in journals such as Creative Nonfiction, The Oklahoma Review, and The Sonoran Review. He spends his free time as a high school cross-country coach, as the chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council, and as a father to two teenage children. He is currently at work on his first memoir.
contact Dr. Grant: