Leveraging Humanities and Arts in Clinical Ethics Education

Abstract: This interactive, 2.5-hour workshop will explore how integrating humanities- and arts-based methods can support clinical ethics education. The session will demonstrate how engagement with film, visual art, and narrative can foster reflection on personal and professional values to enhance ethical decision-making skills. To illustrate the usefulness of these methods for ethics education, the workshop will guide participants as they analyze visual and narrative works inspired by challenging clinical and ethical situations. This process will deepen participants’ self-awareness and empathy while developing strategies to navigate real-world clinical dilemmas. Beyond increasing personal sensitivity to diverse moral perspectives, the workshop will prepare participants to conduct similar interactive trainings with ethics students at their own institutions.
The workshop will also cover evidence-based approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of these pedagogical strategies in clinical ethics education. Participants will leave with practical tools and assessment frameworks they can implement at their own institutions.
Participants will gain insight into innovative teaching methods that make ethics education more engaging, reflective, and impactful for learners in healthcare settings. The workshop will be led by interdisciplinary faculty from the University of Rochester’s Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics—a department with a long history of integrating humanities and arts-based approaches into clinical ethics education. Presenters include faculty with expertise in narrative medicine, visual arts, medical education evaluation, and clinical ethics.

Keywords: Clinical ethics education, Education/Interprofessionalism, Health Humanities