TOUCH AS A HUMAN TOOL

Human touch is considered a prerequisite to health and well-being even to the point that infants left without it suffer considerably or even die. Medical science has failed to develop this vital area of communi cation as a means of producing knowledge or by using it in primary car e. One paper has listed 12 medical schools where touch was being taugh t. This paper begins with a justification of why human touch is import ant in patient-physician relationships and discusses salient issues in addressing human touch in a medical school setting at Turku universit y. It offers an outline of a unit where touch is being taught in relat ion to content, skills and an appropriate development of professional attitudes.