Inculcating Jesuit Values via Medical Humanities

Thomas J. Hansen, MD

Jesuit Medical School Conference

2011

Creighton Medical Humanities

• To be more explicit about our Jesuit tradition at Creighton University School of Medicine as it applies to medicine.

• How to do this to Gen Y?

Creighton Medical Humanities

• Generation Y – Opportunity for Gen

Y to help create a course for their generation

– Opportunity for Gen Y to integrate Ignatian Values into Medical Education

Generation Y• 7 Defining

Characteristics• Special• Sheltered• Confident• Conventional• Team-oriented• Achieving• Pressured

– Deloitte Development LCC 2005

Generation Y• Beliefs

– Education is good– Integrity is admirable– Parents/teachers are

role models• Deloitte Development LCC

2005

Generation Y• At school

– Inductive discovery- learn better through discovery than being told

– Technology is expected– However, the activity is

more important than the technology behind it

– Prefer a group activity to Power Point or a formal lecture.

• Deloitte Development LCC 2005

Generation Y• At work

– Work well with friends and on teams

– Partner well with mentors– Resourceful, innovative– Impatient; comfortable with

speed and change– Expect respect– Value guidance– Thrive on flexibility

• Deloitte Development LCC 2005

Generation Y

• Sixty Minutes Link • “Transform workplace into a nicer place to be.”

• “Transform medical environment into one embodying Ignatian Values”

CUSOM Medical Humanities

• Ignatian Values– Contemplatives in Action– Cura Personalis– Magis– Men and Women for

Others

• Method:– Speakers– On-line group

activities– On-line Reflections– Multi-Media

How does Ignatian Values Apply to Medicine?

• Ignatian Values in Continuing Medical Education

• School of Medicine– Undergraduate

Medical Education– Graduate Medical

Education– Continuing Medical

Education

M1 - Contemplatives in Action• Term comes from GC 32

• “If we wish to continue to be faithful to this special character of our vocation…we must “contemplate” our world as Ignatius did his, that we may hear anew the anguish and aspirations of men and women.”

• Reflection, Vocation, Mission

M1 - Contemplatives in Action• Who are the Jesuits and the

Sisters of Mercy?• History of St. Joseph

Hospitals• Mission of CU, SOM, St.

Joseph Hospitals• What is your mission?

– Photostory, Facebook

• Introduction to Jesuit Spirituality

• Praying with the senses• Service learning• On-line reflections and small

groups

M2 - Cura Personalis

• Latin for “Care of the Entire Individual”

• Originally used to describe the responsibility of the Jesuit Superior to care for each man in the community with his unique gifts, challenges, needs and possibilities.

M2 - Cura Personalis• Mind• Body• Spirit

• On-line reflection– Caring for patients in

mind/body/spirit – Not just treating a

disease

M3 - Magis• Ad Majorem Dei Gloria (AMDG)• Latin “For the Greater Glory of God”

• Motto of the Society of Jesus• Believed to be coined by St. Ignatius.

• Reflects the idea that any work that is not evil can be meritorious for the spiritual life if it is performed with this intention, even things considered normally indifferent.

M3 - Magis• Sufi Parable

• On-line reflection based on the competencies and their rotations.

M4 - Men and Women for Others

• "Today our prime educational objective must be to form men for others; men who will live not for themselves but for God; men who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce."

• -Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., twenty-eighth Superior General of the Society of Jesus

M4 - Men and Women for Others

• “Service”

• The meaning of medicine is service.

• Service is a way of life.

• Capstone Project

Creighton Medical Humanities

• Questions?