About Medical Humanities
Mission
EDUCATE, TRANSLATE, INTEGRATE
Our mission is to educate University of Rochester’s healthcare students, residents, faculty about the non-scientific aspects of medicine by applying humanities-based knowledge and approaches to issues of health and patient care. Our “translational” humanities model allows learners integrate the science of disease with the art of caring for the patient.
To do so, the Division of Medical Humanities offers programs, projects, courses, electives and activities that use methodologies and materials from the humanities disciplines to address key issues in healthcare. These disciplines include literature, history, visual arts, philosophy, music, film, as well as studies in gender, religion, culture and disabilities. Through these humanities-focused programs, the Division reinforces the biopsychosocial approach to patient care, and develops students’ and faculty’s skills, knowledge and attitudes consistent with the LCME/ACGME Core Competencies. Among these skills are ethical and humanistic patient care, mindfulness, interpersonal and communications skills, and professionalism.
Overview
Created in the mid 1980s, the Division offers about 28 Medical Humanities Seminars per year; all students are required to take at least one 8-week seminar in each of their first two years. In their third and fourth years students participate in clinically oriented medical humanities conferences in the third-year clerkships in medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. They can select from an array of diverse electives in the history of medicine, literature and medicine, fine arts, film, creative writing, clinical ethics, palliative care, and health care law in both the pre-clinical and clinical years. Residents and fellows can arrange with Division faculty to take these electives.
Extracurricular educational activities of the Division include a monthly Literature and Medicine Reading Group for medical students in all years, Medical Reader's Theatre presentations for faculty, residents and students, and the G.W. Corner History of Medicine Society for the URMC and general Rochester communities. The Division also offers a cluster of enrichment programs, called Pathways, in Medical Humanities and/or Clinical Ethics, Deaf Language, Culture, and Healthcare, and Latino Language, Culture and Healthcare.
The Division awards a competitive one-year research Fellowship in Medical Humanities/Ethics, and smaller enrichment grants to medical students.
The Division is closely affiliated with the Program in Clinical Ethics, which is a service entity of the Strong Memorial Hospital.
