The Healer’s Art Faculty Development training provides an opportunity for medical school faculty to:

• Expand their traditional goals as medical educators
• Gain competency in a new model of medical education
• Move from a teaching model to a mutual learning model of education
• Build collegial relationships that are non-judgmental and non-competitive
• Gain skill in small group participatory leadership
• Join a national community of educators dedicated to the human dimension of medicine

The intensive training is both experiential and didactic — participants personally experience each session of The Healer’s Art course, and then discuss the principles of this discovery model approach to learning professionalism. The process enables course directors to gain confidence in implementing these innovative techniques. All course directors have access to long term grant-supported phone and email consultation with ISHI staff and a national network of Healer’s Art faculty and Deans are available for additional insight, colleagueship and support.

The retreat workshop is held every July at the Commonweal Retreat Center, located in the Point Reyes National Seashore, in one of the most beautiful natural settings on the northern California coast. Cool ocean breezes and a mix of fog and sunshine make July weather ideal for quiet introspection and personal renewal. The retreat also offers gourmet vegetarian cuisine, morning yoga, comfortable accommodations, time for reflection and connection to colleagues and walks on the beach. Physician faculty consistently describe the training as profound, transformational and healing.

This training is offered to medical faculty who teach first and second year medical students at accredited schools. The deadline for applying is April 1st. The training fills with a waiting list every year so if you are interested in attending, please submit your application as early as possible. Limited scholarships are available, dependent on our funding. If you are interested in applying, please send an email to Dianne Duschesne, RN, CHPN, Associate Director of the Healer’s Art, at dduchesne@commonweal.org. In your inquiry please include your medical school affiliation, faculty position, and the department who will sponsor the course at your school. If you are interested in offering a program for medical residents or other professional students, please send an email detailing your interest to drlynn@commonweal.org.

Educational Goals

The overall goals of The Healer’s Art Faculty Development Workshop are:

• To train medical school faculty in the planning and implementation of
  The Healer’s Art curriculum.
• To support medical school faculty in positioning the Healer’s Art course within their institution.
• To support medical school faculty in strengthening and preserving the human dimension of medical education and medical students.
• To validate meaning and values clarification as a legitimate goal in medical education.
• To foster the appreciation of curriculum as a transformative as well as an informative process.
• To foster harmless and healing relationship between student and teacher, professional colleagues and physician and patient.
• To validate contemplation, reflection and self-care as legitimate medical educational objectives.
• To re-inspire faculty as educators and renew their commitment to teaching.
• Enable faculty and students to recognize and address individual uniqueness including cultural differences.

Educational Objectives

Faculty participants will be able to:

• Implement a 15-hour experiential, transformative curriculum for medical students MS1 & MS2.
• Implement a 6-hour experiential, transformative curriculum for medical students MS3 & MS4.
• Compare the transformational potential of the Discovery Model to the traditional cognitive/intellectual educational model.
• Discuss the shadow of health care education and strategies to detoxify it.
• Name 3 parameters of safe interactional space and its importance in transformational medical education.
• List the characteristics of a Community of Inquiry approach to medical education.
• Lead a class exercise for discovering effective healing responses to the losses of others.
• Discuss grief and its importance in preventing burnout.
• Discuss grief’s impact on the ability to find meaning in professional work.
• Lead a class experiential exercise in listening and presence.
• Run a Finding Meaning in Medicine group for faculty colleagues.
• Discuss the personal meaning of their work with peer professionals.
• Lead 2 class exercises in service, calling and professional commitment.
• Lead a class using symbols to uncover the meaning in professional work.
• Discuss the power of story to both prevent and heal the wounds of medical school training.
• Discuss the importance of silence in transformational medical school education.
• Facilitate a small group discovery model discussion.

Click here to read what faculty have reported about the experience of teaching the course.

If you are interested in applying for the training in order to bring The Healer’s Art to your medical school please send an email to Dianne Duschesne, RN, CHPN, Associate Director of the Healer’s Art at dduchesne@commonweal.org. In your inquiry please include your medical school affiliation, faculty position, and the department who will sponsor the course at your school.

CME Credit

The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal is accredited by the Institute for Medical Quality/California Medical Association (IMQ/CMA) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal takes responsibility for the content, quality and scientific integrity of this CME activity. The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Commonweal designated this educational activity for a maximum of 36 AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™ — Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. This credit may also be applied to the CMA Certification in Continuing Medical Education.