Our Purpose

Purpose

Inspired by Dr. John P. McGovern (external link)‘s commitment to the Oslerian Tradition (external link), the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics promotes humane healthcare through the humanities and the arts.

Mission

The McGovern Center advances humanistic healthcare through education, scholarship, and creative expression. We model, cultivate, and promote academic approaches that equip healthcare professionals and trainees to provide person-centered care, pursue lifelong service, and sustain their own well-being.

The McGovern Center strives to:

1. Use classic and critical methods from the humanities and the arts to explore what it means to be a person, to suffer, and to heal;
2. Develop humanities and ethics education centered on the dignity, context, and lived experience of each patient;
3. Advance scholarship in medical humanities, health humanities, bioethics, clinical ethics, and related fields and areas;
4. Support healthcare professionals and trainees in forming holistic professional identities that guide and sustain their work; and
5. Expand the scope of medicine and medical education through community engagement, service, and civic responsibility.

Vision

The McGovern Center aspires to be a national leader in medical humanities by advancing critical and creative scholarship, developing innovative programs that shape the field, and cultivating future leaders committed to compassionate, ethical, and humanistic healthcare.