A Study on the Value, Current Status, and Education Direction of Medical Humanities Education in Korea

The purpose of this study is to verify the pedagogical necessity of the medical humanities and to analyze the educational contents of medical humanities in medical schools of Korea. Medical humanities education should reflect the students’ real life situations and attitudes because the educational goal of medical school students is to live as happy persons and good doctors. Understanding the medical humanities education that can achieve this goal will enable students to overcome various difficul-ties they will face in the future, and these contents should be included in graduation outcomes. The curriculum of medical humanities in Keimyung University School of Medicine was also analyzed, and based on this, we suggest the direction of education to be pursued. According to the analyzed data, medical humanities should be avoid-ed from knowledge-oriented memorization education, and the curriculum should be supplemented by finding ways to integrate with basic and clinical medicine subjects. In addition, education that can increase resilience and form the identity of a doctor who can love and care for oneself is required even in difficult situations. Many attention and research will be needed in the future to achieve the original purpose of medical humanities education to understand others and society and to rec-ognize the value of empathy and consideration.