Integrating the humanities in the education of health professionals: implications for search and retrieval of information.

This article examines the increasing use of the humanities in the education of health professionals and posits that the approach may be of use in teaching health professionals information search and retrieval skills. However little evidence exists to support the educational effectiveness of using the humanities. This lack of evidence raises concerns about the costs of financing this approach to learning. These costs include the issue of copyright which cannot be ignored. While the humanities might provide a more attractive approach to teaching information search and retrieval skills, further research is needed to justify the costs of this approach to learning in more general terms and urgent attention to.