Studying medicine forces students in health professions to grapple directly with philosophical questions. These include questions about the nature of being human, the essence of health and healing, the role of suffering, and what it means to live well and die well. They are questions that the world’s religious traditions have offered responses to for thousands of years. Yet the young adults who are studying for different health professions belong primarily to Gen Z, thirty-four percent of whom have no religious affiliation. Given the growing lack of religious connection and the near absence of exposure to religion in American public education, these young students need guidance as they confront the big questions.

How do we help students consider what the world’s faith traditions teach about these questions? How do we help them understand that virtues might make them better people (and health professionals)? At the Paul McHugh Program for Human Flourishing we try to help students at Johns Hopkins University (and beyond) to do just that. We guide them through many different types of arts and humanities activities, all designed to stimulate reflection on the big questions and help them flourish as health professionals. Our ultimate goal is for students to experience the awe-some nature of medicine. It is an incredible privilege to encounter another human being in the midst of suffering and to offer that person hope and healing.

The author leads a Visual Thinking Strategies discussion at the National Gallery of Art. Photograph by Jennifer Bishop. Used by permission.

Since 2015, the McHugh Program has developed and launched a number of arts and humanities initiatives for students in health professions. One of these, the Longitudinal Scholars Program (LSP) in Human Flourishing, provides individual and group mentorship to a select group of students through all four years of medical school, and beyond. In addition to the LSP, the McHugh Program offers courses open to any Hopkins pre-health or medical student. These courses are all grounded in Tyler VanderWeele’s model of human flourishing and taught entirely in art museums, where students use art to explore how family, religious community, education, and work are pathways to a flourishing life. For example, one activity requires students to walk individually through the galleries and select an artwork that represents their motivation to become a health professional. The students spend a few minutes sketching the artwork and reflecting in writing on their choice. Then the students come together to tour the galleries, sharing the artwork they picked with each other and commenting on its connection to their professional identity. Such activities increase our students’ capacity for wonder, tolerance of ambiguity, and ability to empathize with patients. They grow both personally and professionally. Here the students speak for themselves:

“Overall, I am surprised at the very positive impact this course has had on me and my perspectives. I connected with the art and fellow members of the course at a deeper level than I had anticipated, and I look forward to continuing to look for such connections in the future. I am pleased to say this course has been a real highlight of my medical education thus far and I expect the lessons learned will help me become a more empathic and effective physician and overall person.”

“The course reinforced my values. It never felt like there were values placed upon us, but so many activities asked us to evaluate who we were, how we felt, and what we wanted that it became a space to critically think about our values and whether we were living by them.”

“I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve been stretched by this course. I’ve been forced to interrogate prejudices and limits to empathy that I didn’t realize I had. I’ve learned that art has a unique ability to inspire vulnerable reflections that show me more about who I am and take me by surprise.”

“I gained an incredible energy, peace, and joy from taking this course, so much so that I wept after our last session. I am so grateful to have taken this course when I did and I’m dejected now that it’s over. I feel more hope for my future as a physician, and more confidence in my abilities to face the future.”

The McHugh Program is now seeking funding to support the launch of additional museum-based courses for both pre-health and medical students. We have a particular interest in courses focused on religion and spirituality and the related concepts of awe and wonder. Students will encounter, reflect on, and discuss paintings, household objects, music, stories, poems, and ritual and devotional objects that have emerged from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. In addition, they will participate in art-making activities – sketching, mask-making, reflective writing – related to religious traditions and healing within those traditions. Students will explore questions: Is there a divine reality? How is it related to the cosmos, and how can we know it better? How can we become better thinkers and inquirers? How do we improve our ways of learning about and understanding the world? What can we learn from the world’s religious traditions about fundamental spiritual realities? Students will also reflect on their personal relationship (or that of their family or community) with any religious and spiritual tradition – if they have one. Through these courses, we hope to understand better the growing number of “spiritual-but-not religious” young adults and how their spiritual searches might relate to flourishing.