This study used a qualitative approach to understand the perspective of medical students at the Federal University in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, concerning humanization in the context of medical training. A focus group technique was used, involving a multidisciplinary team from anthropology, psychology, and medicine that studied two groups of nine students each from the last year of medical school. Data were submitted to categorical thematic content analysis, revealing three categories: the student-patient, teaching-learning, and student-professor relationships. The first category showed that the student's experience of contact with patients is essential for constructing a humanized professional identity. In the second category, professors with no training in inherent pedagogical practices, plus the dichotomy between theory and practice, hinder the autonomous formation of knowledge and a comprehensive view of the individual. Two opposing sub-categories emerged from the third category (model professor and asymmetric relations) that reflect the importance of the professor's ethical-humanist stance rather than an authoritarian attitude in the construction of the student's professional identity. These data highlight aspects of medical training that can substantiate a discussion of humanization in the context of the new curricular guidelines.
Medical students; Medical education; Humanization; Qualitative research
