Writing community: a humanism curriculum with an academic lens

Explicit teaching of humanism is a goal of education reform, but specific strategies to do so are limited. The authors developed a longitudinal third-year medical student curriculum combining reflective and academic writing with literary reading and reflection to i) improve writing skills, ii) enhance scholarly activities, and iii) foster humanism in patient care. From 2005-2007, 24 third year Harvard Medical School (HMS) participated in a writing program at this hospital. All students completed pre/post surveys and qualitative assessments of the writing program. Students felt better-equipped to access resources (P=0.03), conduct a literature review (P