The story of ethics: narrative as a means for ethical understanding and action

The greatest challenge facing medical students today is not the incorporation of daunting volumes of biomedical information and ways of thinking, but rather the need to remain "humanized." educators have questioned the assault medical education poses against very spirit and psyche of medical students. Leaders in medical education searching for new ways to maintain students' most humane characteristics-- characteristics that society-at-large expects and for which admissions have selected students in the first place. Immersion in the disciplines has brought about a real disconnection from the emotive empathic aspects of "doctoring." Moreover, the scientific paradigm has insufficient for grappling with modern ethical dilemmas. As-to-be, we need to develop new ways of thinking about and with our patients. To wit, I would recommend a curriculum of education that embraces narrative as the substantive form of ethical and personal development.