Humanities - MD (HMN)

Humanities Seminars are capstone courses for the Health Humanities Pillar in medical education, required during Phase 3. These courses are grounded in humanities, social science, or arts-based content and/or methods. Humanities Seminars integrate humanities scholarship with the practice of medicine to provide a context for students to deepen and extend their knowledge, reflect on professional identity development, engage in critical thinking, and integrate cognitive and affective responses to course materials. While all Humanities Seminars will be offered within this broad framework, specific topics and methods will vary depending on the expertise of the instructor. All courses embrace a common set of learning objectives and courses may include additional learning objectives as deemed appropriate by course instructors.

As the introductory course in the Humanities Phase 1 sequence, we will devote class time considering issues of pressing social interest, including structural inequities like racism and discrimination in medicine, justice, and unconscious bias. The course also introduces primary skills in narrative medicine, clinical ethics, and anthropology, all of which promote clinical practices that are inclusive, culturally sensitive, and self-aware. A primary conceptual framework that guides the course is the social construction of reality. Our worlds are both biologically and socially constructed. Biological construction addresses how our bodies work as organisms, why we are healthy or sick, and how to treat illness so that we can become well. Social construction addresses the social worlds, values, stories and structures that we create to sustain ourselves as individuals, families, and communities. The social construction framework explains the way our minds perceive reality and shape it. If we understand how our realities are constructed, we can find ways to change those realities that are harmful-either by creating biochemical treatments to fight disease or to identify and then alter behaviors that lead to discriminatory practices. Many disciplinary approaches in the social sciences and humanities illuminate the social construction of reality. This course provides students with conceptual frameworks to refer to during their entire medical school experience.

Practicing good clinical medicine requires both keen observational skills and careful deductive reasoning. Identification of key pieces of data, recognition of patterns in the data gathered, and interpretation and reinterpretation of both data and patterns, are key components of medical decision-making.* The purpose of this course is to emphasize the power and importance of observation and interpretation in the practice of medicine. As students prepare to work with patients, O&I provides the opportunity to begin developing competence in these areas without the fear of misdiagnosing or harming a patient. Here, learners will be challenged to refine their observational and analytical skills using works of art-mostly visual art and photography, but also brief writings-and to communicate their impressions and findings to others, a process similar to differential diagnosis. Unlike the goal of arriving at one "correct" answer in medicine, however, this course encourages multiple answers and interpretations. By exploring what various people experience in a piece of art, we come to understand that our own perspectives are limited. Not infrequently, listening to others' observations enables us to comprehend more completely and therefore interpret more accurately. Ideally, experiencing the arts also leads to empathy for others, another fundamental goal of practicing medicine.

The goal of HIC is to support the cultivation of humanistic sensitivity, which involves: - Noticing that there is a humanities issue - Adapting strategy and behavior to the humanities issue - Reflecting on the effectiveness of the strategy and behavior - Reorienting and reflecting to develop new approaches for the future Humanistic sensitivity involves looking outward toward professional practice and inward at one's own professional development. HIC is intended to be tightly connected to the care of patients; a practical, more so than theoretical, course. Toward this end, the concurrent organ system PBL cases will serve as the springboard for HIC learning most weeks. In this way, we will approach course topics through a single rich narrative description, and then zoom out to widen our view. The frame of the course is to apply humanistic sensitivity strategies to understand the experiences of the doctor and the patient within the societal context of medicine. Key themes for exploring these experiences will include: - Professional identity formation and wellbeing - Patient as person - Ethics - Critical Consciousness At the end of this course, we hope that you will be able to apply humanistic sensitivity in Clerkships and other educational settings to notice how a humanities issue is impacting providers, patients, or the clinical context, and then have some tools to begin to respond to it.

As physicians we treat patients who come from highly diverse and often unfamiliar backgrounds. We strive to be sensitive to each patient's needs and humane in our interactions. Using art and a selection of readings, this course seeks to hone the student's critical skills of observation - incorporating visual cues to help us to observe, hear and therefore understand our patients better. Class readings explore the integral role of cultural background and the many unique challenges that stigmatized populations often face. The readings are discussed and the student is encouraged to self reflect in order to recognize bias, advance their cultural humility and embrace an open approach to learning about others who might be different than ourselves. The readings may be modified to respond to each class' diverse interests. To introduce art analysis as a means of honing observational skills, the class takes a field trip to The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia (virtual in 2021). Dr. Barnes' goal was to highlight the unique interrelationships of varied artists and a range of art forms. Dr. Barnes' unique perspective has been credited in part to his study of medicine - as the evaluation of a patient often requires us to weave together disparate elements and details to make a correct diagnosis.

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.

Phase II Clerkships can present emotional, physical, and psychosocial challenges for medical students when rotating in the clinical environment for the first time. Humanities Across Clerkships (HAC) is a longitudinal course for medical students engaged in Phase II clerkships to reflect upon issues encountered in the clinical learning environment related to Humanities and career development. Medical students will work together to formulate solutions that will ultimately promote professional identity formation and advance career development while serving as a venue to discuss stressors and challenges. The sessions will be run in a virtual format or in-person and will be facilitated by a trained faculty member in a safe, nurturing, and cultivating environment. By the end of the course, medical students will be able to process the challenges of and changes to professional identity while interacting with the clinical learning environment; cultivate individualized skills and tools to advance career development and to deliver patient-centered care; and utilize and solicit near-peer learning and mentorship with compassionate and respectful communication skills.

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.

Practicing good clinical medicine requires both keen observational skills and careful deductive reasoning - precisely the skills essential for any good detective. Identification of key pieces of data, recognition of patterns in the data gathered, and interpretation and reinterpretation of both data and pattern, are key components of medical decision-making. The purpose of this course is to emphasize the power of observation and interpretation in the practice of medicine. Using works from the whole spectrum of the fine arts (painting, music, writing, photography, dance, drama) students will challenge their observational and analytical skills and will communicate their impressions and findings to others, a process similar to developing a differential diagnosis of a patient's illness. Unlike the goal of arriving at one "correct" answer in medicine, however, this course encourages multiple answers and interpretations. By exploring what various people experience in a work of art, we come to understand that our own perspectives are limited. Occasionally, noting what is absent or not said is as important as what is readily observable. Listening to others' observations enables us to understand more completely and therefore interpret more accurately.

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.

The purpose of this fourth-year humanities selective is to explore how healthcare trainees can engage with the arts in ways that promote self-care. Instead of spending one month having students read and talk about how they can use the arts for self-care, we challenge them to take a year and actually do it. This course is for all levels of artists-there is no expertise, past experience, or special talent required. This course is open to Hershey and UP students.

This course will progress in a linear fashion through the historical context of the development of medicine as a profession. The sessions will be themed and include such transitions as the professional journey from description to scientific method, from priest to clinician, and from low to high patient expectations. Illustrations will include the life and contributions of historical figures beginning with Hippocrates and Galen. Student facilitated discussion will be directed toward identification of parallels between historical and modern-day applications. Students will be asked to reflect on comparisons between past and present practice philosophy, patient relationships, and end goals of the healing process. The class will engage in the study of historical text and personalities to prepare students for their own continuing professional development. A reflective paper from each student on a topic of choice will be shared in group discussion during the last session.

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.