Document Type
Reflection
Abstract
Forming Physicians for Others: The Identity of the Jesuit Catholic Medical School
The Jesuit medical school accepts a widely-acknowledged telos: the preparation of the medical student to offer excellent patient care. It pursues this telos, however, through the distinctiveness of Ignatian formation, which finds expression in each domain of undergraduate medical education. This formative commitment, oriented toward and witnessing to an appreciation of the unconditional worth of the human being, may empower a subset of medical students—who are engaged by a life of faith and open to the transcendent invitation of their lives—to experience an even more fundamental transformation—one that foresees a future contemplative practitioner for whom the encounter with the patient is discernment-laden and Spirit-shaped. The Jesuit medical school thus becomes the formative setting for the physician who situates the patient encounter within their relationship with God. For this subset of medical students, medical practice may become prayer as the patient encounter reveals itself as a context for being-Christ-for and seeing-Christ-in the patient. Because God’s love is both active and diffusive, this Spirit-formed physician becomes a witness within and around the patient encounter.
Recommended Citation
Hardt, John and De Marco, David G. SJ.
"Forming Physicians for Others: The Identity of the Jesuit Catholic Medical School."
Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal Vol. 15:
No.
1
()
.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15365/2164-7666.1545
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/jhe/vol15/iss1/2
