Exploration and practice of humanistic education for medical students based on volunteerism
Open accessAbstract
Humanistic education aims to promote educated people's practical and conscious activities to enhance their humanity, cultivate ideal personalities, and realize personal and social values, to develop a humanistic spirit. The advancement of higher education in China has led to the proposal to strengthen scientific and humanistic education integration. Medicine is between science and humanities, shouldering the important task of training senior medical personnel, the quality of medical students will affect the quality of future medical and health work; thus, medical students must explore and practice humanistic education. Promoting and practicing volunteerism is a specific act of constructing spiritual civilization in the whole society, and it is also considered beneficial for improving citizens' sense of responsibility and dedication. Medical students' practice of volunteerism and help in society is a precise manifestation of humanistic care. This review summarizes medical students' exploration and practice of humanistic education in volunteering.
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Technological dependency risks must be mitigated-when students overemphasize quantitative metrics (e.g., CMI values), individualized patient needs may be overlooked, necessitating strengthened medical humanities modules in future curricula.
“Paradoxically, technological dependency risks must be mitigated—when students overemphasize quantitative metrics (e.g., CMI values), individualized patient needs may be overlooked, necessitating strengthened medical humanities modules in future curricula [24, 25].”
From Reforming hospital management education with the P-MASE pedagogy: a randomized controlled trial (2026) · cites this paper as [24]
In “Problems of humanistic education” (page not provided), the paper says a “medical technology comes first” mentality neglects humanism in practice. In “The importance of humanistic education in teaching medical students” (page not provided), it calls for medical humanities in the curriculum. It does not address students’ reliance on quantitative metrics or CMI values as the mechanism by which individual patient needs are overlooked. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Xiao, L., Peng, D., Zhong, J., Fang, T., Dai, L., Peng, X., Yu, C., & Huang, F. (2025) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2025.1587526 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Jin, S., Zhang, X., Li, X., Cheng, M., Cui, X., & Liu, J. (2023) · 2023 IEEE 6th Eurasian Conference on Educational Innovation (ECEI) · doi:10.1109/ecei57668.2023.10105419 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Reforming hospital management education with the P-MASE pedagogy: a randomized controlled trial
Zhang, Y., Li, W., Zhang, C., Wang, Y., & Feng, S. (2026) · BMC Medical Education · doi:10.1186/s12909-026-08948-8
“Paradoxically, technological dependency risks must be mitigated—when students overemphasize quantitative metrics (e.g., CMI values), individualized patient needs may be overlooked, necessitating strengthened medical humanities modules in future curricula [24, 25].”
- Authors
- Chen, L., Zhang, J., Zhu, Y., Shan, J., & Zeng, L.
- Affiliations
- Department of Science and Education, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Guangzhou, P.R. China
- Jinan University (CN)
- Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zeng, Luxian
- Venue
- Medical Education Online
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2023-02-25
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2182691-2182691
- ISSN
- 1087-2981 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9970200
- OpenAlex
- W4321996985
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 5
- FWCI
- 2.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Medical Education Online (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- 2019 Provincial Teaching Reform Project of Clinical Teaching Base of Undergraduate University of Guangdong (Nos. 2019JD034)
- the Doctoral workstation foundation of Guangdong Second Provincial General hospital (Nos.2020BSGZ049)
- the science foundation of Guangdong Second Provincial General hospital
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Keywords
- humanistic education, medical students, volunteering, medical volunteering, integration of science and humanities, humanized care, spiritual civilization, medical ethics
- MeSH terms
- Curriculum, Education, Medical, Humans, Humanism, Humanities, Students, Medical
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