Gold Humanism Honor Society Chapter Established

April 8, 2022

PCOM South Georgia's inaugural members of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

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PCOM South Georgia has established a chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. The society is created for third-year medical students who are inducted based on merit and service. The inaugural members include Chizoba Akunwannee (DO ’23), Daaniya Jamal (DO ’23), Alyson Meyer (DO ’23), Kathy Nguyen (DO ’23), Setu Patel (DO ’23), Jasmine Rogers (DO ’23), Smera Saikumar (DO ’23) and Monali Shah (DO ’23).

Founder Jessica Ng (DO ’24) said that this society not only focuses on academia but also on the humanistic side of practicing medicine, placing importance on compassion and humanism.

“It is important for medical students to have an opportunity to work together to give back to the community and recognize the significance of compassionate human care,” she said. “It is too easy to get wrapped up solely in numbers–GPA, board scores, etc.–so when students have the motivation to go beyond those scores and really get engaged in service above self, then we as a community really delve into what is inherently important to being a physician: being holistic in your care for your patients.”

GHHS recognizes students, residents and faculty who are exemplars of compassionate patient care and who serve as role models, mentors and leaders in medicine. GHHS members are peer-nominated and are the students whose peers say they want to take care of their own families.

Nikita Mirajkar, PhD, associate dean for curricular execution, serves as the chapter advisor. She said that humanism is essential to excellence in health care.

“A physician who advocates humanism in health care places an emphasis on collaborative, compassionate and scientific excellence when caring for their patients,” she said. “This enables a caring and trusting relationship to develop with their patients, which facilitates better patient compliance and adherence as it relates to their treatment plans and more favorable health outcomes. Any patient will tell you that a physician that they really value is one who recognized their innate humanity, and was able to offer compassionate, tailored health care as a result.”

Being a member of this society places students in the company of other medical students, residents and physicians who are committed to pursuing compassionate, patient-centered care. Moreover, the Electronic Residency Application site now has a GHHS identifier that allows residency program directors to identify applicants that are interested in pursuing humanism in health care. This provides students with an advantage when applying for residencies.

GHHS has 175 chapters in medical schools and residency programs. More than 40,000 medical students, physicians and other leaders have been inducted and serve as role models of the human connection in health care.

To be considered for the honor society, peers nominate eligible individuals. The peer nomination survey asks students to identify individuals in their class who most closely fit the brief, real-life scenarios that exemplify a caring physician. All third-year students and faculty members at PCOM South Georgia are eligible to submit a nomination for a third-year student.

A secondary vetting process is used to review candidates that are nominated. The selection committee consists of six faculty members from PCOM South Georgia and five GHHS members from the PCOM Georgia chapter. Students nominated in the primary process are evaluated during this step based on their interest and motivation to serve, work and lead in addition to their response to the following essay question: “If selected for GHHS, how will you encourage your peers to practice compassionate, patient-centered care at our institution?“

Each faculty and student evaluator submitted their top five rankings based on these responses. The students with the highest number of rankings were selected to become inducted into PCOM South Georgia’s Chapter of Gold Humanism Honor Society.

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