Making Medical Education (and Legal Education) More Humane

The title of this Article, suggested to me by the organizers of this symposium, implies that medical education is inhumane.As it turns out, there is abundant evidence to support that contention.The Association of American Medical Colleges administers a graduation questionnaire annually to fourth-year medical students. 1Among its many questions is one that asks students whether they have experienced mistreatment at any time in their medical school career. 2Roughly 40% of medical students respond positively to that question, and that proportion has remained constant for decades. 3 So, using that metric, one may logically conclude that medical education is inhumane."Inhumane" focuses exclusively on the learner's experience of the learning environment.I would rather widen the lens to think about the quality of the learning and working environment and its impact on the people we serve: our patients.Perhaps, then, the title of this Article should be, "Making Medical Education (and Legal Education) More Humanistic."Humanism is a set of virtues or beliefs.These virtues or beliefs become manifest as the behaviors that comprise professionalism. 4 Cohen posits that "humanism is seen as the passion that animates professionalism" in the medical