The implementation of a required book club for medical students and faculty

ABSTRACT

More medical schools are incorporating wellness activities and the medical humanities into their curriculum. Finding implementable programming that is feasible and enjoyable is challenging. Both student participants and faculty who might facilitate programs are busy with clinical and educational responsibilities. Book club discussions in general are an activity that bring people together and expose groups to literature. In medical education, informal books clubs have been shown to increase camaraderie and expose participants to topics in medicine that they may not have encountered without the structure of the group assignment. At one large private urban medical school, all fourth year medical students were required to participate in a one-time hour-long book discussion with a faculty member one week before Match Day 2021. This paper describes the implementation of that program and discusses survey results from 179 students who broadly indicated that the books were enjoyable, the discussions were enriching, and that the program should continue for future classes of medical students.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical students
• narrative medicine
• book club
• social connection
• wellness

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge and thank Stephen I. Gross for his generous contribution of books to Sidney Kimmel Medical College Class of 2021.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.