Expanding Awareness of How to Humanize Care

A Johns Hopkins University faculty team will host a national conference this fall on the benefits of museum-based education for people in the health professions. The event, held at 555 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, the university’s new academic facility in Washington, D.C., is scheduled for Dec. 4–6.

Being Human: Envisioning the Future of Museum-based Health Professions Education is one of 40 projects and programs to receive funding beginning July 1. The support comes from the university’s Nexus Awards program, an initiative supporting research, teaching and convening efforts based at the new building.

The conference will bring together 30 education leaders from across the United States, including deans of education from medical and nursing schools, representatives of national professional societies including the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association, representatives from regulatory organizations such as the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and funders from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities. Other participants will be from museums or the faculty development field.

Led by Meg Chisolm, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Johns Hopkins’ transdisciplinary team is made up of the following faculty members who have expertise in museum-based and interprofessional education: Jennifer Kingsley from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Toni Ungaretti from the school of education, and Kamna Balhara and Sean Tackett from the medical school.

During the conference, participants will visit nearby museums including the National Gallery of Art and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where they will participate in experiential and interactive activities and discussions.

Chisolm says the event will introduce participants to the breadth and depth of museum-based education for health professionals while helping to establish Johns Hopkins “as the national leader in this rapidly growing field.”

The inaugural Nexus Award winners include scholars and researchers from all nine divisions of The Johns Hopkins University. According to JHU president Ron Daniels, newly funded proposals addressing such topics as artificial intelligence, health policy, the arts and humanities, global health and gender equity will “ensure our faculty’s best insights and discoveries inform society’s approach to its greatest challenges.”

The Art of Creating Humanized Care

A course based in local art museums helps third-year and fourth-year medical students build their professional identities.

In the course Professional Identity Transformation, Johns Hopkins students discover that art stimulates perceptions and discussions not usually found in medical school. Here they attend a class at the Walters Art Museum.