This article presents the results of a study on humanist concepts and their contribution to medical training from the students' perspective in the School of Medicine at the Federal University in Alagoas, Brazil, from November 2006 to July 2007. The methodology included five focus groups in which statements by 73 students were recorded and subjected subsequently to discourse analysis. The results feature three aspects in: students' observations and experiences in the relationship to the institution and course and the feelings that emerge in their learning process; the student-faculty relationship during medical school; and the physician-patient relationship and physicians' interaction with others during their professional practice. The study detected elements that indicate a learning process interspersed with signs of dissatisfaction, irritation, impatience, and intolerance towards professors and their teaching methods and the institution. Humanization is not perceived in the teaching practices during medical training, although it is prioritized in the initial formal spaces of medical school.
Humanism; Humanization of Assistance; Student's, Medical; Education, Medical; Physician-Patient Relations