Healer’s Art course offers reprieve, life skills

One class offered at the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine does not cover traditional material. It begins with meditation.

The Healer’s Art is an elective course for first-year medical students. Patty Peters, the course director, said the class offers a reprieve from students’ everyday coursework.

“The reason we do it is at least partly because medical students are always supposed to be studying science and learning facts and figures, and they’re always in this realm of memorizing,” Peters said. “So much of the time is spent in class memorizing and not really getting anything in the realm of what we call the art of medicine.”

Healer’s Art was designed in 1991 by Rachel Naomi Remen. It’s now offered in more than 70 medical schools in the U.S. and around the world, according to the course website.

The class covers patient and personal grief, unique cases in medicine, mindfulness techniques and how to fit students’ other hobbies into the rigorous schedule of medical school.

First-year medical student Sharleen Yuan said she took Healer’s Art to learn more about concepts that aren’t normally covered in her other classes.

“I thought it would be very interesting to delve deeper into these humanistic topics that my classmates and I know we’ll experience in the future,” Yuan said. “As physicians, we not only have to understand how to heal the body, but the mind, as well, in our patients.”

Kelly Truesdale, a doctor at Sanford, graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009. Truesdale didn’t take a course like Healer’s Art, but she said she would have if one had been available.

“That would be definitely a good thing for a lot of people, not just medical students,” Truesdale said. “That would be rewarding.”

Truesdale’s advice for medical students is to find an activity to relieve stress even if it’s only for 30 minutes a day.

“It’s different for everybody,” Truesdale said. “I think you always get to a point your brain is kind of full, you can’t tolerate any more stuff and that’s kind of when you have to take a step back and try to do something for yourself.”

Keeping work and home life separate is also very important, she said.

“You have to be able to separate yourself from the situation and still remain professional and not be too emotionally attached, but at the same time be attached enough,” Truesdale said. “That’s really something you can’t be taught at all. You have to know how careful to be in that regard.”

In one of the later Healer’s Art sessions, Peters has students rewrite their own hippocratic oath.

“It’s really gratifying to us teachers, how these students do want to be very good doctors, they want to be there for their patients, they want to take time,” Peters said.

Yuan said the class has served as a reminder of the fundamental values in medicine.

“Sometimes, it’s very easy to forget the reason why we’re here in the first place. It’s not so much a skill or a major concept I’ll take away from Healer’s Art, but more of a reminder,” Yuan said. “I want to always remember and keep with the awe of medicine, the awe of the human experience.”

In addition to hearing from the facilitators, students share their own experiences in smaller discussion groups. As a result, Peters said classmates get a lot closer to one another.

“They never otherwise get to sit down for this length of time and talk about more serious things,” Peters said.

The majority of students who take Healer’s Art have a positive experience, Peters said.

“It’s been an extremely powerful and emotional experience for me and, I believe for my classmates as well,” Yuan said. “In a few short hours, we’ve talked about deeply personal experiences and beliefs that I don’t think we would normally do in a typical classroom.”

Yuan said one of her favorite parts of Healer’s Art is listening to real-life situations that physicians have had to deal with.

“I definitely would recommend this class to future first-years,” Yuan said. “The only thing you’re giving up is your time, while you’re gaining a deeper understanding of medicine and humanity.”

(Photo: Patty Peters, the Healer’s Art course director, leads the class in a meditation exercise. Ally Krupinsky / The Volante)