Alessandro Franceschini

Internationally, the teaching of medical humanities (MH) in medical schools is often limited to elective courses. It is therefore important to understand students’ views in order to increase their participation in these courses. Three elective courses in medical humanities have been activated at the University of L’Aquila, which constitute a single educational pathway for medical students: a course in Visual thinking strategies, a course in Narrative medicine and a course in Reflective practices. This study aims to investigate medical students’ opinions and satisfaction with these three medical humanities courses. We administered a questionnaire to all medical students who took a medical humanities course in the academic year 2023–2024 at the University of L’Aquila. The questionnaire aimed to assess students’ opinions on the content and usefulness of the course and to gather suggestions for improving it. The data collected were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, by using various qualitative analysis techniques. Thirty-eight students took an MH course during the selected academic year and were recruited for the survey. The survey revealed higher course participation among female students. The courses proved to be important opportunities for students to compare themselves with their colleagues. The students were very satisfied with the three courses (especially the VTS and RP courses), considering them useful for their personal, professional and social growth. They reported improving their observational, reasoning and communication skills (VTS course), developing an empathic attitude towards patients (VTS and NM courses), and learning to work in groups (RP course). They appreciated more workshops than theoretical lectures and suggested increasing the chances to practice what they learnt, also in real life. Although some aspects can still be improved, medical humanities courses have been very successful among medical students due to their educational and social value.

The asymmetry inherent in the care relationship can expose the patient to the phenomenon of reification, which induces patient alienation. Clinical procedures that require contact have a high alienating potential. Showing care and attention to the patient's reactions during contact procedures can improve the doctor-patient relationship. This requires the ability to identify the patient's feelings, known as cognitive empathy. Experiential training has proven to be effective in promoting perspective-taking ability in healthcare professionals. This paper presents 6 pilot experiential workshops aimed at enabling medical students to explore patient perspective-taking. It also outlines the results of a preliminary evaluation of the impact of these workshops on students.

Medical Humanities is a rapidly expanding field of medical education. However, in Italy, only a few humanities are included in the curricula of medical schools. Other humanities are provided in the form of elective courses, with great heterogeneity among the various medical schools. The objective of this paper is to present an optional course in Medical Humanities, based on an integrated approach, aiming at fostering the human and professional growth of medical students. In addition, the paper presents the research project associated with the integrated course, aimed at evaluating the effects of the course program on students' personal and professional skills and psychological well-being.

Outdoor recreation in natural areas has become an increasingly popular activity globally, yet the long-term effects on wildlife are poorly known. Reconciling human access to nature and wildlife conservation requires sound evaluations of how outdoor activities affect biodiversity in space and time. We aimed to contribute to this topic by asking whether tourism in the world-renown Dolomites, Italy, affected wild mammals in the long term, and if it elicited spatial or temporal avoidance. We detected mammals by systematic camera trapping over seven consecutive summers at 60, consistently sampled, sites, and estimated trends in occurrence at community and species levels through a dynamic community occupancy model, combined with site use intensity and an index of nocturnality. Overall, 70% of the 520 000 images obtained depicted humans, whose presence intensified over the 7-year period. Nonetheless, both community and most species-level occurrences increased. However, human activities caused a strong temporal avoidance in the whole community, especially in most disturbed sites, while spatial avoidance was observed only for bigger-sized species.