Learning from the humanities

'Professional competence is enhanced when students are broadly educated' argue Jill Gordon and Martyn Evans, and the humanities can do just that, fostering personal and professional maturation by providing insights into the human experience. In this paper the authors place the humanities firmly within the medical curriculum but highlight that its position there can be precarious as the liberal arts vie for teaching time with more techno-rational areas. The paper summarises the arguments for the teaching of 'medical' humanities and provides a wealth of useful advice for curriculum and course designers.