The Sound of Music: Transforming Medical Students into Reflective Practitioners

Abstract

There is a growing focus on the introduction of courses in humanities inmedical education. Music is not a widely-used tool in medical education. It hasunique features that make it an excellent educational resource for thepossibility to express emotions. Within minutes, topics of interest in learningmedicine, such as loss, compassion, sorrow, and solidarity can be identifiedand used in pedagogical processes. Music—like other art forms—can deal with theemotional universe of the student. Promoting a reflective attitude within anacademic discipline requires the creation of space to make it formal. ThePublic Health Department of Jundiai Medical School (Sao Paulo, Brazil) offers aspecial course on family medicine core values, led by a SOBRAMFA MedicalEducation & Humanism faculty member. The process of understanding astudent’s experience has allowed for the unveiling of a phenomenon thatencompasses the student’s inner world as he/she attends to his/her medicaltraining. The music is played on the outside resonates with the story andemotions of the student. Students realize that the pace imposed by the medicalschool does not allow them to reflect on either their own lives or theirformation. The musical experience allows students to hear their feelings andshare them with the professor and peers. They are surprised by memories andfeelings that surface that they were unaware of or could not remember. Thesefeelings are presented in themes that organize the affective experience ofstudents, mobilized by the music. Several themes have emerged, such as thesearch for the self; family; vocational doubts; relationships with peers,professors, and patients. The findings of the experience of the music spectrumcome in, offering numerous prospects for development in the context of medicaleducation, as noted in the themes that emerged. As the basic experience we haveof the world is emotional, the music—this form of human knowledge of affectivetone—also becomes educational force, because the teaching process is notlimited to transmission of content. Instead, more importantly, it implies that theteacher in development processes of meaning and significance enable the learnerto reflect and transform the everyday practice, especially in medicine, wherethe interpersonal relationship is the basis for the full realization of futureprofessional action.