UNMC’s Gold Humanism Honor Society is ‘exemplary’

The UNMC Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) received an “Exemplary” ranking by the national organization, the society’s highest ranking for individual chapters.

Officials of the Arnold Gold Foundation and the GHHS singled out UNMC for “extraordinary contributions to humanism in health care.”

The UNMC chapter, which was started in 2014, was recognized for events, activities and programs designed or conducted at least in part by its GHHS medical students that:

• increase engagement and empathy with the diverse patient community they serve;
• encourage clinician resilience and team building;
• teach advocacy and leadership skills so critical for today’s clinicians; and
• highlight the importance of compassionate care at all levels in the health care workplace.

GHHS adviser Charity Evans, M.D., chief of the UNMC Division of Acute Care Surgery, pointed to two initiatives by the GHHS in which she takes particular pride.

The first is the “Sunday Rounds,” one of GHHS’s first programs at UNMC, in which medical students take “off-duty” time to visit and connect with patients.

“It’s a great idea for students to be able to spend time with patients outside of their medical role,” Dr. Evans said. “It helps them augment and hone those humanistic qualities, so when they are in the medical role, they have something to lean on to be able to say, ‘How else can I relate to this patient?’

“Since it began, the program has grown to cover the VA Hospital, which is a group of patients that greatly benefit from that program.”

Another favorite initiative is the GHHS’s role in the annual “White Coat” ceremony, during which first-year medical students are welcomed to UNMC.

“Gold Humanism medical students write a note for each medical student entering, and we leave the notes in the white coat pockets,” she said. “Almost universally, the notes have a personal phone number, someone for the new student to reach out to as they begin this adventure and cross over into medical school.”

In a time of global crisis, Dr. Evans said, the role of humanistic medicine becomes important on many levels.

“Our patients now feel very alone, and I wish there was more we could do for them,” she said. “The new class that was inducted in February is deciding what their year will look like, and I’ve asked them how we can reach out to patients at this time.

“This is such a crazy time in everyone’s life — dealing with social distancing, the medical students aren’t here on campus — so how do we also support each other during this time?”

Dr. Evans expressed gratitude to the GHHS faculty co-advisers, Trek Langenhan, M.D., and Allison Ashford, M.D., the GHHS faculty, resident and medical student members, and the College of Medicine for their support.

“Being part of the Gold Humanism Honor Society always has been one of the highlights of my career,” she said. “This (ranking) says a lot about this school, its leadership, and their desire to grow this opportunity for their students.

“This also takes a lot of work on the students’ part. To be able to do the amount of programming they do, and touch the lives of so many people throughout the university, it speaks volumes about this group and what they’re capable of doing.”