In the Shadow of Success: COVID-19, John Henry Newman, and Medical Education
Kristin Collier, MD, FACP, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, University of Michigan; and Director, University of Michigan Medical School, Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion; Bo Bonner, MDiv, Director, Center for Human Flourishing, Mercy College
How do medical educators teach students to see the whole patient rather than mere “bags of blood and disease”? Or in other words, what roadblocks to inculcating a deep reverence for human dignity exist in medical education? Exploring lessons learned from the experience of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper utilizes the educational theory of St. John Henry Newman to ask fundamental questions about the relationship of knowledge, and the dignity of students in universities with the specific goals and outcomes of professional formation in the medical professions. The paper insists on the importance of providing a “whole” education for students if we expect them to see the “whole dignity” of their patients.
For Christian medical educators, the experience our students faced during the COVID-19 crisis demands a self- examination of our educational methods. Our insistence on imitating Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician, in his healing ministry to the wholeness of the human person requires us to ask if we instill a similar devotion to human dignity in our students.
With this goal in mind, we turn to engaging the work of John Henry Newman, particularly his magnum opus on Catholic education, The Idea of a University. His ruminations on the role of the Church, liberal arts, and powerful professions like medicine produces an insightful question for us to consider: How shall we situate medical education within the university? Newman does not create a narrative of faith vs. science, but instead sees a poverty in our understanding of knowledge within Universities. Newman’s focus on liberal education rests in the wholeness of the circle of knowledge, and the integral nature of knowledge. Unless we attend to the worthiness of Knowledge for its own sake, we will not be able to understand its usefulness to professions like medicine. In other words, if we do not approach our students with the dignity that sees the wholeness of their education as important, we will be unable to teach them the wholeness of human dignity that rightfully is their patients.
For Christian medical educators, the experience our students faced during the COVID-19 crisis demands a self- examination of our educational methods. Our insistence on imitating Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician, in his healing ministry to the wholeness of the human person requires us to ask if we instill a similar devotion to human dignity in our students.
With this goal in mind, we turn to engaging the work of John Henry Newman, particularly his magnum opus on Catholic education, The Idea of a University. His ruminations on the role of the Church, liberal arts, and powerful professions like medicine produces an insightful question for us to consider: How shall we situate medical education within the university? Newman does not create a narrative of faith vs. science, but instead sees a poverty in our understanding of knowledge within Universities. Newman’s focus on liberal education rests in the wholeness of the circle of knowledge, and the integral nature of knowledge. Unless we attend to the worthiness of Knowledge for its own sake, we will not be able to understand its usefulness to professions like medicine. In other words, if we do not approach our students with the dignity that sees the wholeness of their education as important, we will be unable to teach them the wholeness of human dignity that rightfully is their patients.