Straight From The
Horse’s Mouth An interesting and odd
series of stories appearing from July 4th to the 6th, 2003 in a number of
papers reported that medical students are starting to work with horses in
an attempt to improve their human bedside manner. The story from Arizona
AFP News starts by saying, "A group of US medical students have traded
stethoscopes for horse halters and sterile hospital hallways for dusty
equine exercise pens in a bid to improve their bedside manner with human
patients.
The University of Arizona Medical School has
introduced a course, "Medicine and
Horsemanship: An Introduction to Human Nonverbal Interaction at the
Bedside". Dr. Allan Hamilton, a renowned neurosurgeon
and head of the college's surgery department says, "This course is not
about horses; it's about body language. Horses are very, very good at
detecting those unspoken messages, and it's a wonderful way to teach
medical students to become aware of their own body language."
The theory behind the course
is that by learning to put the horses at ease, the medical students also
find out how to respond sympathetically to emotionally charged situations,
such as comforting worried patients or bereaved relatives. "Horses are
gigantic amplifiers for body language, and are extremely sensitive to it,"
said Hamilton. "What we're actually doing is transmitting a true feeling
in a non-verbal way. It's a wonderful, wonderful tool for teaching about
bedside manner."
The only question remaining
about this is, "If the horses could talk, would this affect the results of
this new course?
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