Do students' attitudes toward required readings and service-learning for a Medical Humanities course predict their perception of whether the course fosters their personal and professional development?

Purpose: To determine whether prospective medical students' attitudes toward readings and service-learning for a Medical Humanities course predict their perceived impact of the course on their critical reflection and empathy for their peers.

Methods: Following a Medical Humanities course, students completed surveys concerning their attitudes toward team-based service-learning and readings required for the course. And they completed surveys designed to measure their empathy for one another and thoughts and feelings about the course (e.g., "owing to this course, I have changed the way I look at myself" = critical reflection).

Results: Students' positive attitudes toward service-learning and readings for the course correlated positively with each other and with their critical reflection (CR) and empathy for their peers ( = 0.28 to 0.63, < 0.05 to 0.0001).

Conclusion: Positive attitudes toward team-based service-learning predicted students' perceptions of the Humanities course's impact on both critical reflection and peer empathy, whereas attitudes toward required readings played a significantly lesser role.