Providing context for a medical school basic science curriculum: The importance of the humanities.

Introduction: To increase students' understanding of what it means to be a physician and engage in the everyday practice of medicine, a humanities program was implemented into the preclinical curriculum of the medical school curriculum. The purpose of our study was to determine how medical students' views of being a doctor evolved after participating in a required humanities course.

Methods: Medical students completing a 16-clock hour humanities course from 10 courses were asked to respond to an open-ended reflection question regarding changes, if any, of their views of being a doctor.