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Scholarly Commons > HCA Healthcare Journal > Vol. 7 > Iss. 2 (2026)

 

Keywords

humanism; resilience; volunteerism; internship and residency; graduate medical education; GME; education, medical, graduate

Disciplines

Medical Education | Medical Humanities

Abstract

Background

The Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) is a nationally recognized organization present at over 80% of medical schools in the United States to promote humanism, integrity, and volunteerism among students. There is no equivalent national honor society present at the majority of Graduate Medical Education (GME) training programs.

Methods

Our institution created the Distinguished Humanitarian Society (DHS) as a local honor society in 2022 to recognize trainees who exemplified the ideals espoused by GHHS. In January and February 2025, we conducted semi-structured interviews to extract themes regarding inductees’ experiences with the DHS. Both interviewers used the same list of open-ended questions aimed at gauging members’ opinions about the DHS.

Results

Semistructured interviews with 10 of the 31 (32%) inductees (2022-2025) identified 7 themes: positive impact of DHS, unique program, motivation for community service, curriculum vitae value, recognition and validation, platform for service, and program unification. Many of the residents when interviewed stated that knowing more about DHS may have influenced their ranking of our residency program.

Conclusion

The DHS promotes traits that we hope trainees take into their medical practice, namely, humanism and integrity. Given our success, we recommend that other GME programs establish a chapter of DHS at their institutions.

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