I recently found out that I was "inducted" into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Although I know it's not near as prestigious as AOA, I am actually quite honored as students are nominated/selected by their peers as well as faculty and it is supposed to award excellence, integrity and character in clinical medicine .

I was just wondering how many other schools/students have or are aware of this award, and if it has any impact on your residency application(ie will PDs even recognize/value it, or is it regarded as being too obscure or silly).

thanks

I too recieved this award. I think there are 49 total Med schools that have this honor. I dont know how much it will help but look at it like this.. it cant hurt. And remember it says a lot about your interpersonal skills.

http://humanism-in-medicine.org/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/08481.1.6023493230713330066

The bottom of the page has the schools with chapters.

Unfortunately, the selection process for this award is nothing more than a popularity contest at my school (you get elected by fellow classmates, and if you by some misfortune you took a year off or something and dont know anyone in your new class, forget it, you're totally out of the running). I agree, it does say something about interpersonal relationships, but more so among fellow students (which is a great quality of course), at least where I am. Of course some of the students who make it are absolutely great and caring to patients, but I know many classmates in my previous class and the class before that who I thought were very deserving of this award and didn't get it (and some people who did get elected but who I'd beg to differ on being the most caring to patients).

If the determining factor is voting by fellow students, of course this will happen. I mean, we rotate with 1/6th to 1/12th of the people in our class. At that, we only get to see how students on our own team interact with patients. Personally, by the end of MS3, I was familiar with only maybe 10 students' patient interactions, if that. I dont know if the voting process is the same at your guys' schools, but I dont see how this system is supposed to really represent what it's meant to.

But congrats guys. . .your interpersonal skills are strong, whether with patients or with fellow students (and both are very important)!!

it's a sham

In some respect it is a popularity contest. That being said I think you have to be collegial to your colleagues and I at least hope a part of it had to do with TRULY caring for my patients. Our school it is a vote but then attendings have some say and so do the people at school. In reality who else knows how you treat pts besides your classmates and SOME attendings. Just the reality. Good luck with interviews.

it's a sham

Sucks you feel this way.. It is def not AOA but it means something..

not when it is voted on only by peers, and there is a healthy mix of tools in with the righteous peeps. at my school last year, it was simply the people who most frequently partied together. an honor? yes. a representation of humanistic attributes? hardly.

when a dude who has said i want to go into x specialty because i want x income at minimum and don't wanna have to deal with all the b.s. of sick patients is amongst your 'gold humanists', you may want to rethink the process. having faculty input doesn't really address that. if you are going to have an award that implies one student has superior humanistic qualities, you may want to involve patients in the process somehow. after all they have feedback forms at mcdonalds, they can have them at teaching hospitals as well.

it's all good to me, i landed a sweet residency w/o it. but if it's bogus, it's bogus.

Can't say I entirely agree with "bogus" and "sham" being fair descriptors of this award(at least at my school). The selection process for my class involved nominations from all students over preclinical and clinical years(necessitating nominations from more than those in your social circles to be selected), faculty/attending input, and a review of the students' clinical evaluations and community service experience. While there certainly is a degree of subjectivity and "popularity" effect, I think overall there isn't really a more accurate way of selecting students for this type of honor(other than the aforementioned patient surveys, which doesn't seem entirely feasible to me).

Also, I feel that the aim of the award is valid, in that it takes more than academic prowess to be a solid physician in the vast majority of fields and that there should be some recognition for students who excell in professionalism, bedside manner, etc. We have AOA(which is fraught with it's own inherent weaknesses in terms of the selection process btw) for academics, but medicine involves more than striving for an encyclopedic knowledge base. That's what separates this profession from Phds, JDs, and many other fields.

At any rate, I'm still curious if anyone has had interviewers or PDs acknowledge this award on interviews or otherwise. Any anecdotes?

Can't say I entirely agree with "bogus" and "sham" being fair descriptors of this award(at least at my school). The selection process for my class involved nominations from all students over preclinical and clinical years(necessitating nominations from more than those in your social circles to be selected), faculty/attending input, and a review of the students' clinical evaluations and community service experience. While there certainly is a degree of subjectivity and "popularity" effect, I think overall there isn't really a more accurate way of selecting students for this type of honor(other than the aforementioned patient surveys, which doesn't seem entirely feasible to me).

Also, I feel that the aim of the award is valid, in that it takes more than academic prowess to be a solid physician in the vast majority of fields and that there should be some recognition for students who excell in professionalism, bedside manner, etc. We have AOA(which is fraught with it's own inherent weaknesses in terms of the selection process btw) for academics, but medicine involves more than striving for an encyclopedic knowledge base. That's what separates this profession from Phds, JDs, and many other fields.

At any rate, I'm still curious if anyone has had interviewers or PDs acknowledge this award on interviews or otherwise. Any anecdotes?

Well if so, then there shouldn't be such an "honor society" in the first place. . .or it should be called something else. Cause when the hard partiers win just for being partiers and the truly collegial and patient-caring students dont, it sends a message that the way to act is however the "partiers" are acting, discouraging the humanistic students who did not receive the honor from continuing to act the way they are acting.

I strongly believe that every person in medical school should have the patient as the top priority, and the colleague as the next priority. I think it takes a lot more than just having an honor society that students compete to get elected for, to teach and foster such an attitude. in fact by introducing the competition factor, i feel it's a bit of a detriment to developing a sincere caring attitude and genuine collegiality among colleagues--instead breeds fakeness, even if original intentions were sincere.

Oh, and popularity does not always equal collegiality. It's always easy to work well with people you're already friends with. Much more challenging to be able to work with someone you dont know well or who may not mesh perfectly with your personality or work style.

I agree, it is a total sham the way it's done at my school.

I think a fairer way to honor the most caring students is to have housestaff nominate med students they feel exhibit those qualities. Like we do, vice versa, for the Little apple Awards.

Like with every other extracurricular activity or "honor", it is just another way to pad your resume for when you apply for residency.

Never heard of it personally.

sounds nice though.

later

I recently found out that I was "inducted" into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Although I know it's not near as prestigious as AOA, I am actually quite honored as students are nominated/selected by their peers as well as faculty and it is supposed to award excellence, integrity and character in clinical medicine .

I was just wondering how many other schools/students have or are aware of this award, and if it has any impact on your residency application(ie will PDs even recognize/value it, or is it regarded as being too obscure or silly).

thanks

I was not inducted to this very prestigious society. I cried in bed when I found out I don't have any friends in class. Oh, the pain, the pain....

This award is a joke in my school. We have people campaigning other classmates to vote for them. The most hated person (egotistical, backstabbing, shallow, selfish, eeew-looking) in my school was inducted to this BS society. It just ruined the whole thing for everyone involved. When a third of the class receive this "award", you know it's BS. They should just give it to one or two people. This would make it more meaningful. With that being said, there are people out there that totally deserve the award. I just feel bad that they have to share the honor with people from the other end of the spectrum.

I was not inducted to this very prestigious society. I cried in bed when I found out I don't have any friends in class. Oh, the pain, the pain....

This award is a joke in my school. We have people campaigning other classmates to vote for them. The most hated person (egotistical, backstabbing, shallow, selfish, eeew-looking) in my school was inducted to this BS society. It just ruined the whole thing for everyone involved. When a third of the class receive this "award", you know it's BS. They should just give it to one or two people. This would make it more meaningful. With that being said, there are people out there that totally deserve the award. I just feel bad that they have to share the honor with people from the other end of the spectrum.

EXACTLY how it is at my school. :thumbdown There are a few well-known negative people that get it every year, which totally discredits the award for everyone else who got it, as well as in the eyes of the entire student body. But hey, that's what happens when people start competing over "humanism".

I like the patient input. I know at my school it is a popularity contest with some of the most unhumanistic members
not when it is voted on only by peers, and there is a healthy mix of tools in with the righteous peeps. at my school last year, it was simply the people who most frequently partied together. an honor? yes. a representation of humanistic attributes? hardly.

when a dude who has said i want to go into x specialty because i want x income at minimum and don't wanna have to deal with all the b.s. of sick patients is amongst your 'gold humanists', you may want to rethink the process. having faculty input doesn't really address that. if you are going to have an award that implies one student has superior humanistic qualities, you may want to involve patients in the process somehow. after all they have feedback forms at mcdonalds, they can have them at teaching hospitals as well.

it's all good to me, i landed a sweet residency w/o it. but if it's bogus, it's bogus.

...when people start competing over "humanism".
Maybe instead of an honor society, we could have the Humanism Olympics. Then, instead of some silly honor society, you could brag about your medal in 100-meter empathy.

At my school 10% are inducted into the GHHS. I was among those selected. While I can see why some question the selection process, my selection is not consistent with this generalization. As a commuter (60 minutes each way for three years) I have never been to a med school party and only socialize with three classmates outside of school. Take from that what you will.

we had this thing too; it's all BS.

it wasn't even a popularity contest for us. we all just nominated our friends and i don't think there was even a vote. to give you a hint of how prestigious it was, the nomination took place on match day when everyone was already drunk.

It sounds like the majority of those who received this award think it's valuable and those who didn't don't. Sort of interesting.

I really like the idea of the Humanist Games and the 100 Meter Empathy. Maybe Bill Clinton could throw out the first "I feel your pain."