Humanities in Medicine

The Healer's Art

Becoming a physician is a journey we make both as individuals and together as a community.

The Healer's Art is a 15-hour voluntary program that is offered to all first-year medical students at the Zucker School of Medicine, as part of the Humanism in Medicine program. The course is offered over five evening sessions which provide opportunities to explore the meaning of physician hood and the practice of medicine.  Themes are discussed in brief didactic sessions integrated with guided exercises and small group sessions emphasizing confidentiality, trust and generous listening. There is no pre- or post-work related to this course. The experience is designed to encourage students and faculty to trust the power of listening and to recognize that who we are is as important to our healing relationships as what we know.  The program focuses on clarifying, strengthening, and making a personal commitment to medicine as our life's work. The course is open to 30 MS1 students on a first come, first serve basis.

The Healer's Art was developed by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, and has been taught every year since 1992.  It currently is offered in 88 medical schools throughout the world.  For more information about the Healer’s Art Program generally, please visit:  https://rishiprograms.org/.  For information about the Zucker School of Medicine’s Humanism in Medicine, program, please contact Dr. Alice Fornari, or Dr. Taranjeet Ahuja.

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