Interdisciplinary Summer School of the TUM School of Medicine and Health on the historically conscious development of professional identity in medicine

Funding: TUM Ideenwettbewerb
Term: 2025 - 2026
Contact persons: Karina Korecky and Sandra Apondo

Description:
The development of professional identity in medicine (Professional Identity Formation, PIF) describes an ongoing process of dealing with the professional, moral and social requirements of medical practice. The aim is to help future doctors "to think, act, and feel like a physician" (Cruess & Cruess) - in other words, to integrate the professional, ethical and personal dimensions of the profession.

The most recent report of the Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust (2023) emphasizes that this process also includes a historical dimension. It proposes expanding the concept of PIF to a "History-Informed PIF (HI-PIF)". A historically aware development of professional identity should help to recognize historical conditions and threats to medical ethical principles and to reflect on their significance for today's medicine and our professional self-image.

The project´s aim is to develop new formats, in close cooperation with teachers and students of medicine and other disciplines, that anchor historical reflection and ethical education in medical education in the long term (see also the further development of the National Competence-Based Learning Objectives Catalog NKLM 2.0). The focus is on questions regarding the significance of historical responsibility for today's professional self-image and ways to promote a reflective, responsible attitude. We plan an interdisciplinary workshop and a summer school, during which lectures, discussions and excursions will open up space for interactive and experience-based learning processes.

Students and lecturers from the TUM School of Medicine and Health, the LMU Faculty of Medicine and the cooperating clinics who are interested in participating, are cordially invited to do so. Get in touch!