Course Description 

We began The Healer’s Art course here at the Duluth campus of The University of MN Medical School in 2003. It has run for twenty one successful years, and will be offered again for second year medical students in the fall of 2024-25. The course is directed by Dr. Jennifer Pearson, Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health in Duluth. Some of the logistics of our adaptation of The Healer’s Art are as follows:

• We offer this course to second year medical students only. Since its inception, our participation has averaged about 60% of the second year class each year that has elected to take the course.
  
  
• The course runs as a fifteen hour, one elective credit through the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health. It is taught in five sessions, approximately three hours per session.
• It begins in the fall, and ends prior to winter break.
  
  
• Exact dates for this upcoming school year are not yet determined as Dr. Pearson sets the specific dates after the entire fall/winter calendar is completed, so as to avoid conflicts with exam times.
  
  
• Historically, we’ve run the course in the evenings from 6:30-9:30 p.m., most of the sessions on Wednesday nights with occasional variability in effort to avoid upcoming exams.
  
  
• The course has been held at The Duluth Women’s Club for many years, with intention to hold it there again for the upcoming 2024-25 school year. This is a beautiful large old mansion on the east hillside, not far from campus. We are able to meet in the living room area as a large group, and then break off into various rooms of the home for our small group discussions.
  
  
• Typically a 5:1, student to faculty ratio has been maintained. The faculty that are involved with The Healer’s Art have been a mix of medical school faculty as well as community faculty. All are clinical physicians, and come from a range of specialties including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Orthopedics, Psychiatry, Obstetrics, Hematology/Oncology, Palliative Care Medicine, and Radiology. The faculty involved are physicians who bring honesty, sensitivity, respect, and natural compassion to their work. They participate as equals in the small group discussions and exercises, offering perspectives as individuals on the same professional path as the students, just further down that path.

Our sessions are titled as follows:

1. Bringing our Whole Self to Life
2. The Rollercoaster of Life: Living the Peaks and Valleys
3. (Small group session only in continuation of the above topic)
4. Mystery and Awe
5. Service as a Way of Life

• Most of our sessions (with the exception of the third, which is a small group only session), have a large group portion and a small group portion. Small groups are randomly selected at the first session, and continue with the same members throughout the course.
  
  
• The large group portion of the sessions tends to be thoughts shared by Dr. Pearson and/or other faculty, stories, and group exercises. The small group portion of the sessions is interactive dialogue amongst all small group members. In these groups, students often come to know one another at a new depth in exploring their personal insights and stories.
  
  
• The course, as articulated by Dr. Remen, is based on a “discovery model” in which there are no experts, no right answers, and it is acceptable to “not know.” The wisdom of the collective life experiences is recognized, with curiosity and exploration encouraged as a part of the dialogue. There is also encouragement for the respect of others, self-exploration and self-trust, and personal connection with the fundamental principles of healing.
  
  
• Evaluations are requested after the final session is completed. Nationally standardized forms from Dr. Remen and ISHI have been used in effort to allow the outcomes to be looked at collectively throughout all the medical schools offering this course. Evaluation overviews from past years of our course in Duluth have been included for review.


• We plan to run the course in-person for the fall of 2024, but know that we must follow university guidelines if anything were again to affect our ability to teach in-person.