Humanities - MD (HMN)

Medical Humanities introduces the first-year student of medicine to topics which explore questions of value and meaning in and around medicine.

This course is offered once per year to first year medical students at the College of Medicine. The primary goal of the course is for students to gain an understanding of and respect for the scientific basis and impact of the mind on the body, and of the body on the mind. Therefore, the course will blend aspects of both fields (i.e., how the physiology of stress may be expressed in a primary care clinic in disorders such as migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome). A goal of this course is for medical students to not only understand the scientific basis of the covered topics, but to also see how each of the topics may be either personally or clinically relevant. By the end of the course, it is expected that students will be able to: 1. Explain the physiology of stress as it relates to health and disease. 2. Explore psychological factors that influence the placebo effect, behavior change, and adherence. 3. Appraise meditation and mindfulness and the potential physiologic and psychological benefits to patients. 4. Develop an exercise prescription using the key components identified in class. 5. Describe the impact of trauma (physical and psychological) on health and the role of defense mechanisms and resilience in health, disease, and healing. 6. Examine the concept of humor as a source of healing. 7. Apply each session topic to themselves or their patient experiences.

This two-credit, six-session course is part of the sequence of Medical Humanities courses required for first-year medical students at the Hershey campus of the Penn State College of Medicine. Critical thinking is a skill that is fundamental to high quality medical practice, and supports clinical effectiveness by promoting diagnostic accuracy, effective synthesis of clinical data, and efficient decision-making. This course draws upon medical knowledge that has been already learned in medical school curriculum to give students practice in developing habits of mind related to high-quality processing of a variety of medical, psychological, and social data related to the care of patients. The fundamental premise of the course is that humans use dual cognitive processes to make decisions, called "System 1" and "System 2". System 1 is based on pattern recognition and is fast and efficient, but potentially error prone. System 2 is based on deliberate consideration, and, while it is slower and less efficient, is more accurate. One system is not necessarily better than the other; whichever system is best for a particular case is dependent on a number of factors related to both the case and the person making the decision. High quality critical thinking, as taught in this course, is related to recognition of these factors, and appropriate "toggling" between System 1 and 2. This toggling function is enabled by five habits of mind that include curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, balanced skepticism, and metacognition. This course will introduce the concepts of System 1 and System 2 thinking and the cognitive toggling function between them, and will give students opportunities to define, explore, and practice the habits of mind. This will be achieved through activities that include 1) pre-session reading, reflection, and viewing of materials, 2) Interactive faculty facilitated discussion, and 3) collaborative group discussion of challenging clinical cases and board-style questions.

This 12 week course during the second year of Phase I focuses on the application of verbal, nonverbal, and written communication skills in the context of patient care, team dynamics, and leadership. Communication builds on theoretical framework for communication skills presented in earlier humanities courses to help students construct a practical toolbox of skills as well as the opportunity for the application and rehearsal of skills in realistic patient-care related scenarios. There is heavy emphasis on selfreflection and self-assessment in order to provide students with the skills necessary to improve their communication skills lifelong. During the course, students will progress through four modules: 1) Self, which focuses on self-assessment of internal bias, assumptions, and values, and how these individual characteristics impact the way we communicate as providers and team members, 2) Dyads, which is the most intensive portion of the course, and focuses on specific skills such as techniques for establishing rapport, nonverbal communication, silence, listening, asking/questions, and framing statements, 3) Teams, which expands the techniques and insights learned during modules 1 and 2 for application in scenarios involving interprofessional teams and families, and 4) Systems, which focuses on the role of good communication within a healthcare system, including a session on communication skills of effective leaders, and a case study that explores the impact of a patient-related communication breakdown on a health care institution. Each session may involve pre-reading, and will begin with a short large-group interactive session related to the day's topic. The majority of each session will be devoted to small group workshops facilitated by trained faculty during which students can apply skills to a standardized patient care scenario. Evaluation methods are detailed below. The course will be offered once annually during Phase I of the Undergraduate Medical education Curriculum.

This course introduces the essential clinical competencies required to provide quality end-of-life care.

This creative writing workship requires MS IVs to convey their reflections as medical students in a variety of genres which, collectively, result in a portfolio and publication.

In this course, students will explore the use of graphic storytelling (or Comics) as a medium for communicating medical narratives.

This course teaches medical students about the full impact of illness and serious procedures on patients and their families.

This course explores situational and systemic challenges to ethical behavior in biomedical research and the practice of medicine.

This course presents current topics in Integrative Holistic Medicine and discusses the trasition from Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

This course reviews the key steps in the development of our thoughts and practices relating to childbirth and medical genetics over the past 400 years.

This course reviews the key steps in the development of medicine from its supernatural beginnings steeped in magic and religion through the creation of medical science.

This course introduces students to the core components of the creative arts and healing.

This course invites students to examine brain aging in an historical and cultural context, and contrast dominant reductionist understandings of dementia with a more humanistic, biopsychosocial model of care resurgent in recent years that places greater relative emphasis on the remaining strengths, capacities, and creativity of persons with dementia rather than focusing on deficits and losses.

Utilizes published autobiographical patient narratives and live patient interviews to explore the impact of illness.

At the end of the four weeks students will be equipped with four cognitive frameworks for thinking about and solving ethical issues in their clinical practice.

This course requires the student to study and recognize the great human virtues and to learn to practice virtue in medicine.

This course, intended for students pursuing residency in surgically-based specialties, seeks to explore the interactions that occur between patient and surgeon, from both perspectives, through group discussions, simulated patient scenarios, real patient encounters, and assigned reading.

This is a course that focuses on improving learners' patient-physician communication through building skill in improvisation.

Effective communication with patients is a vital skill for every physician. This course will delve into the interpersonal space between physician and patient.

Students make short documentary films about innovations that make care more patient centered.

This four-week Humanities Selective will be offered once a year during Phase-4, building on medical communication skills learned in earlier phases. Communicating effectively with patients is a critical skill necessary for physicians across all specialties. It is a competency that can be studied and learned, and then fine-tuned over time. Possessing techniques that facilitate good medical communication can increase patient satisfaction, reduce patient's mental and physical distress, and ultimately result in improved health of individuals and populations. Understanding the importance of providing the patient with space to tell their story can result in improved understanding and a more efficient diagnostic process. Recognizing the value of observation can increase a physician's sensitivity to patients and diagnostic clues. An awareness of preconceptions when caring for patients, especially those that are different from us, can help to guard against cognitive bias. In addition, appreciating different interactive styles can help physicians deal more effectively with a variety of challenging patients. The Impressionist Movement of the late 19th century created a novel approach to communication through painting that was distinct from accepted artistic standards of that time. This new painting style fostered a more open and less rigid approach to communication on the artist's canvas. It also embraced the art of observation in the natural setting, and in the process challenged the cognitive bias of that generation about what art had value and worth. The impressionists presented a challenging cadre of artists, each with their own communication style whose behavior was frequently a reflection of mental or physical illness, much like our patients demonstrate. As such, the painters that launched the Impressionist Movement over a century ago can provide a useful metaphor to study effective approaches to medical communication in the present. The course will consist of a Standardized Patient session at the beginning and end of the course. This selective is delivered as six classes, each covering a different topic: Introduction to Painting as Communication, Structure vs. Space, The Art of Observation, Cognitive Bias, The Challenging Patient., and Reflection and Communication through Art. Dialogue on these topics is facilitated through the use of selected readings/film/ video, written assignments, team-based learning and pre-learning prior to class. Active learning is promoted through both individual and team-based painting exercises at University Park Campus and Penn State School of Visual Art, and observational exercises at Penn State University's Palmer Museum of Art. Two interactive presentations by a Penn State professor of Art History help to ground students in understanding the Impressionist Movement and sets the stage to compare communication through art and medical communication with patients.

This Humanities selective is designed for students interested in exploring the ethical, legal/policy, social implications (ELSI) of Translational Genomics. Translational genomics is a broad term that generally applies to the process of moving genomic science and technologies from the research laboratory into the clinical and public health domains. In the context of this course, it also refers to the use of emerging, novel (e.g. 'cutting edge') science in the clinic and for public health purposes. Genetics and genomics are rapidly entering the clinic and public health as tools not just for single gene conditions and rare conditions. In addition, the increased availability of one's genomic information has led to its secondary use in the legal system (e.g. foensics), search for family members, and determining family ancestry. Over the last several decades, ethicists, legal scholars, and social scientists have written and commented on the challenges in genetic research and translating new genetic technologies and research findings in these various domains, and with the increased access to genomic information, examining the different policy and social issues that arise continues to be important so as to facilitate ethical and responsible use of the technology.

Literature, Medicine, and Culture provides students with an opportunity to consider contemporary medicine and treatment in relation to historical experiences, ideas, and imagination. Course readings explicitly pose questions about the present in relation to the past, the challenges of modern therapeutics and how they affect enduring ideas about human nature, and the experience of illness from the patient perspective. Students will build on their Humanities and Systems knowledge base concerning the cultural contexts of illness, treatment, and care. Course content varies according to instructor expertise and topic selection. Students who complete the course will increase their knowledge about medical history and the patient experience, imaginative portrayals of illness and health, and societal approaches to disease and disability. They will be able to identify rhetorical features of disease narratives and historically consistent elements of human experience of illness. In addition, students will enhance skills in reading, interpretation, and analytic writing, as well as observational skills. Classroom discussion and informal assignments help students develop sophisticated understanding of medicine and human experience in context, training them to think critically and in complex ways about the human experience of health and illness, and to represent their developing ideas in written assignments and/or creative projects. Other elements of health humanities learning, such as consideration of professional identity formation and ethics, may be included in course content.

Studies outside the scope of formal courses, supervised on an individual basis.

Formal courses given on a topical or special interest subject which may be offered infrequently.