Student Leader, Reflective Writing Workshops, Program for Humanities in Medicine; Class Representative, Committee on the Well-being of Students, Medical Student Council
Curriculum
Reflective Writing Workshops
Reflective writing workshops are integrated into the clerkship curriculum. They take place four times a year, during the “post-cede” of each clinical rotation. They provide students a structured environment for individual and group reflection.
The sessions are led by senior students to increase student comfort with expressing personal stories. Through a series of guided written prompts of increasing complexity, students write about their clerkship experiences. At several points, they share what they wrote with the group. The prompts begin with short, straightforward questions and then become more complex and personal. Students’ answers often lead to further discussion with peers about shared experiences, reflections upon their education, and differing experiences or viewpoints.
Student leaders train the facilitators. The student leaders and faculty director debrief with the facilitators after each session and intermittently meet with clerkship directors to provide a sense of themes.
To learn more, see the resources below:
Reflective Writing Workshops Resources
- Writing Toward Better CareYale Medicine Magazine
- Reflective Writing for Medical Students on the Surgical Clerkship: Oxymoron or Antidote?Article on ClinicalKey
- Practical Tips for Implementing a Student-Led Reflective Writing Workshop SeriesArticle on SpringerLink
- A novel near-peer reflective writing workshopArticle on Wiley Online Library
Current Student Directors
Hospital Resident; Student Leader, Reflective Writing Workshops, Program for Humanities in Medicine
Faculty Director
Professor; Director, Program for Humanities in Medicine; Director, Yale Internal Medicine Residency Writers' Workshop
Making the Invisible Visible: Exploring Bias Through Art
Making the Invisible Visible is a guided art tour and reflection session that takes place during the first YSM course—Introduction to the Profession. The session is held at the Yale University Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, except when it was conducted virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this session, participants observe and interpret works of art through a structured framework to discuss identity and bias. They analyze how the historical background of an artwork can shed light on bias in healthcare, health inequities, and hierarchies of power in medicine, and explore the impact of bias on patient care and interpersonal interactions in clinical practice.
Making the Invisible Visible Art Tour Resources
Current Student Leaders
Current Resident and Faculty Leaders
Psychiatrist; Student Leader, Art and identity Workshops, Program for Humanities in Medicine
Assistant Professor; Program Director, Collaborative Behavioral Health & Addiction Medicine in Primary Care (CHAMP), Program in Addiction Medicine; Associate Program Director, Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program; Program Director, Substance Use Skills Training to Advance Integrated Care (SUSTAIN), Program in Addiction Medicine; Medical Director, Physician Associate Program; Medical Director, Physician Assistant Online Program
Professor; Director, Program for Humanities in Medicine; Director, Yale Internal Medicine Residency Writers' Workshop
Additional Opportunities
Other humanities sessions are interspersed throughout the curriculum. Students may choose a humanities focus for their thesis or other research.