Medical humanities in Canadian medical schools

This chapter provides an update regarding the status of MH in Canadian medical schools. In relation to curriculum exposure, all schools included MH teaching in the first year, while nine offered MH opportunities in all years of the MD programme. Key informants who were interviewed agreed that MH teaching is important in educating effective and caring physicians, resulting in better patient outcomes, though their views differed regarding the extent to which this occurred ‘intrinsically’ or ‘extrinsically’. Most Canadian medical schools have admission policies that welcome students across a range of disciplines, not exclusively science majors. It is likely that knowledge of MH offerings varied across informants both within and between medical schools. Most Canadian medical schools have admission policies that welcome students across a range of disciplines, not exclusively science majors.