Healer’s Art

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  • Healer's Art 2018

  • Healer's Art 2019


The Healer’s Art is a spring semester enrichment course directed towards first and second year medical students that addresses the human dimension of medicine. Major themes of the course include:

  • Sustaining idealism and altruism
  • Medicine as a calling
  • Cultivating compassion
  • Healing loss
  • Learning tools to prevent stress and burnout

We are delighted that you have chosen to participate in this year’s Healer’s Art enrichment course.  This is the 16th year that we are offering The Healer’s Art at BUSM.  This enrichment course is sponsored by the BUSM Department of Family Medicine.  The Healer’s Art is now offered at 70 medical schools throughout North America and the world. We hope you enjoy this course as much as the faculty enjoys offering it.  If you have any concerns, questions or feedback for us, please contact any one of the student advisors, the faculty, or the Course Directors, Dr. Meenakshi Kumar  (mkumar@bu.edu) and Dr. Nidhi Lal (Nidhi.lal@bmc.org)

All five sessions are on Wednesday evenings and run from 6:00-9:00pm via Zoom.

Spring 2022 Sessions:

  1. Wed, January 19, 2022: “Discovering and Nurturing your Wholeness”

  2. Wed, January 26, 2022: “Sharing Grief and Honoring Loss-Part I”
  3. Wed, February 9, 2022: “Sharing Grief and Honoring Loss-Part II”

  4. Wed, February 23, 2022: “Beyond Analysis: Allowing Awe in Medicine”

  5. Wed, March 9, 2022: “The Care of the Soul: Service as a Way of Life”

With the exception of Session 3, each session has both large and small group sessions.

Attendance

A commitment to attend all six sessions of the course is mandatory.  Please come to all sessions on time.

Readings, Assignments, Grading and Academic Credit

There are no required readings or assignments for this course.  However, you will receive Kitchen Table Wisdom as a gift, which can be for your enjoyment and inspiration now and for the rest of your career.  There are no formal assignments or grades in Healer’s Art.  However, a letter acknowledging your participation in Healer’s Art will be sent to the Dean of Student Affairs and put in your official file.

Comments about the course:

Small group discussions led by practicing physicians, experiential exercises, and personal reflection comprise 90% of the course; only 10% is didactic. These comments are from some of last year’s evaluations:

  • “I will lead my life and practice my art with humility and integrity. I will strive to not perpetuate harm, and to preserve hope. I will exercise my art for, not only the cure and prevention of disease, but for the healing of my patients.
  • “To strive for an equitable society in which all people are treated justly and without prejudice. To be gentle with myself and others; see the good in all people and teach what is true. To find strength in family, friends, and community.”
  • “I will deliver my expertise without my ego. I will do everything in my power to give patients access to health information without being subject to bias. I will foster a community where any person can opt in to advancing justice.”
  • “As I journey through medicine, give me the strength to listen to those around me, especially my patients. Allow me the perseverance to never give up on myself or others during difficult times. Allow me to remember those who helped me get this far and to show them my gratitude. Remember why I fought so hard to get here. Be someone the world can be proud of. May I see the good in others even when it is hidden.”
  •  “I vow to treat my patients with purity of intent to serve, honor and help; to use my competence to the utmost of my patients’ benefit; to be fully present and muster all of my humanity at all times in serving my patients.”
  •  “Allow me to open my heart to your truth no matter how painful. Make me an instrument of your peace. Give me courage to look into each person’s eyes. .Grant me patience when I am rushed. Provide me with a beginner’s mind today and all days.”
  •  “May my journey in this field of service be filled with these things: Gratitude for the lives I meet, Humanity in all that I do, Appreciation for the beauty and stories of others.”
  • “Give me the courage to look into the eyes of the weak and vulnerable and the strength to not look away. Give me the will to always seek justice and the determinations to never give up. Allow me to slow down and listen in a way that connects me to my patients and brings them healing. Let me accompany them through this journey.”

For more quotes about Healer’s art, please click here.

To register for the class, or if you have any questions, please email Chenille Hogan at chenille@bu.edu.