Courses

This course explores health, disease and healing from three distinct perspectives, including literature, history and philosophy (biomedical ethics) while situating medicine and health care in a broader cultural context. As an interdisciplinary course, it is designed to teach students different humanistic elements of medicine, encouraging intellectual depth and breadth in their understanding of the impact of disease, and the roles of medical research, practice and health care in the larger communities and cultures, both past and present, thereby encouraging adaptability in their personal and professional health care decision making. The course will also increase awareness and prompt discussion of ethical issues and human values raised in research, practice and consumption of health.

Course Director: Emily Beckman, DMH and Jane Hartsock, JD, MA
Email: embeckma@iu.edu
Phone: (317) 274-4755
Primary contact for Adds/Drops: Emily Beckman, embeckma@iu.edu
Home campus: Indianapolis/Statewide
Type of course: On-site with participation by Zoom

Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, a student will be able to:

1. distinguish among the disciplinary perspectives (history, literature and ethics) presented and describe the relevant contributions of each to an informed understanding of Western medicine and healthcare. (PBLI1, SBP2)
2. explain how health, illness, medicine and healthcare both impact, and are impacted by human beings within their communities (P1, P2, MK2, MK7, SBP2).
3. challenge established assumptions about healthcare practice, ethics, and history (MK7, SBP2, SBP3).
4. articulate and demonstrate the relationship between reading literature and developing empathy (SBP2, P1, P2, ICS2, ICS3, ICS4).
5. demonstrate improved analytical and writing skills from first paper submission to second paper submission based on feedback from and interaction with course directors (PBLI1).
6. not only address questions from the texts, but also be able to raise and articulate new questions (PBLI1).
7. demonstrate their developing understanding and ability through discussions and other collaborative learning activities in the classroom, in addition to assigned papers and in-class presentations (ICS3, ICS5).

Course activities:
This class will be conducted as a seminar, and class time will be primarily devoted to discussion and, less so, on lectures. Students are expected to come prepared for class by having completed the readings for the day, and considered topics for discussion. All students are expected to bring the reading for the day to class.

Students will be responsible for:

1. completing all assigned readings before coming to class each day;
2. leading the discussion for one selected reading;
3. actively participating in class discussion; and
4. submitting two critical response papers (5 pages each).

Students are expected to improve analytical and writing skills from the first paper to the second.

Readings include (though are not limited to) the following: On Doctoring (3rd Edition), Edited by Richard Reynolds, MD and John Stone, MD Doctors, The Biography of Medicine by Sherwin B. Nuland

Estimated time distribution: 60% Lecture/Seminar; 40% Library/Research Students will spend roughly 6 hours/week in class for 4 weeks in the form of two, 3-hour sessions each week. Students will be required to spend an additional 4 hours each week preparing for class through reading and writing.

Assessments:
Critical Reading analysis: For the main texts/articles assigned for a given class (as indicated by instructor), students must complete two, 5-page analysis papers (50% - 2 papers @ 25% each) Discussion Lead (20%)

General participation: attendance is mandatory, with some flexibility for medical school
schedule (30%)

Prerequisites: Scholarly Concentration enrollment
Interprofessional collaboration: None

This course will proceed as an in-depth scrutiny of the philosophy and empiricism of medical science. The nature of Medical Humanities will be explored by examining and debating issues affecting the human condition in general, and the illness experience, in particular. These issues include evolutionary biology and the beginning of life; questions of artificial life and intelligence; the nature of consciousness; genetics and cloning; the pain of the nation over abortion and euthanasia; alternative and experimental medical techniques; organ donation and transplantation; redefining mental health; and the art and science involved in caring for the patient. Students will examine the nature of the human body, the human experience and biomedicine from various perspectives based in the arts and the humanities including visual arts, media, literature, history and philosophy.

Course Director: Emily Beckman, DMH and Jane Hartsock, JD, MA
Email: embeckma@iu.edu
Phone: (317) 274-4755
Primary contact for Adds/Drops: Emily Beckman, embeckma@iu.edu
Home campus: Indianapolis/Statewide
Type of course: On-site with participation by Zoom

Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, a student will be able to:

1. define past, present, and future problems in health care from multiple and varied perspectives and will work to resolve them using narrative, visual, ethical, historical, and social science methods.(ISC1, SBP1, SBP2)
2. describe with greater insight into the human condition, the value of human life, the nature of suffering, and efforts to alleviate it. (ISC1, ISC2)
3. demonstrate improved analytical and writing skills from paper 1 to paper 2. (Course directors will provide feedback on paper 1 and will work with individual students to promote improvement on paper 2.) (ICS5)
4. not only address questions from the texts, but also be able to raise and articulate new questions. (PBLI1)
5. learn to situate course content within a broader, cultural context while proposing alternatives and challenging assumptions. (SBP2)
6. demonstrate their developing understanding and ability through discussions and other collaborative learning activities in the classroom, in addition to assigned papers and in-class presentations. (ICS3, ICS5)

Course activities:
This class is conducted as a seminar, not lecture, and class periods will involve reading-based discussion, debate and occasional off-site experiences to visit museums and theatre. Everyone is expected to come prepared for class by having completed the assigned readings, and considered topics for discussion.

Students will be responsible for:

1. completing all assigned readings before coming to class each day;
2. actively participating in class discussion; and
3. submitting two 5-page critical reflection papers.

Readings will include:

• Being Human: Core Readings in the Humanities, edited by Leon Kass
• Frankenstein (1818 text) by Mary Shelley
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
• Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
• The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing & the Human Condition by Arthur Kleinman
• The Plague by Albert Camus

Excerpts from the following (will be provided as PDF files):

• Death and the Human Condition by David P. Ausubel
• The Medicalization of Society by Peter Conrad
• Biomedicine and the Human Condition by Michael G. Sargent
• Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward O. Wilson
• Being Me: What it Means to be Human by Pete Moore

Estimated time distribution: 50% Lecture/Seminar; 50% Library/Research Students will meet one evening a month (5 – 8 p.m.) for 12 months. Students should anticipate spending an equal amount of time outside of class preparing for discussion through assigned readings and writing.

Assessments:
Reflection Papers: students are required to submit two 5-page reflection papers throughout the course of the year. Students are expected to improve writing and analytical skills from the first assigned paper to the second. Course directors will provide extensive feedback on submitted papers, and will be available to meet with students to discuss progress. (50% - each paper @ 25%)

Participation: students are expected to attend class having prepared thoroughly and to make a contribution to class discussion/debate. Student must bring assigned readings with them to class. (50%)

Prerequisites: Scholarly Concentration enrollment
Interprofessional collaboration: None