ON HUMILITY IN MEDICINE

The importance of medical virtues has allowed physicians to flourish within their fields as they interact and form relationships with their co-workers, themselves, and, most importantly, their patients. Though much attention has been paid to virtues like compassion and integrity, the virtue of humility has been overlooked. This is unfortunate because humility, I will argue, is deeply important to being a virtuous physician. The humble physician collaboratively works with their patients to understand their concerns and find a solution in the patient’s best interest. In addition, I will argue that humility can indeed be taught and offer how it can be implemented in the medical school curriculum.