The following list provides information on elective courses and educational programs connected to the Medical Humanities on offer at UCSF. Please check with the course instructor and official UCSF course catalog for further information.

Fall 2007
Winter 2008

General Listing:

Area of Concentration in Medical Humanities (AoC - 3 units) Fall

Don't Kill the Messenger! Physicians and the Lay Audience (1 unit) (Winter 2008)

The Healer's Art (FCM, 1.5 units)

Introduction to Narrative Medicine (Fall)

Narrative Medicine: The Medical Student as Writer (1 unit) (Winter 2008)

Older Adults and End of Life Care: Empowering Through Stories (1 unit) (Winter 2008)

Supervised Independent Study (various credits)

Winter 2008 Elective Courses

Don't Kill the Messenger! Physicians and the Lay Audience
170.02 (1 unit)
Contact: Akhil Mehra, MD, MPhil
Tuesdays, 5:00-7:00pm
Parnassus Room U-456
More course info here

This course will examine the issue of translating medicine to the lay public, whether through clinical work, interpersonal interactions with non-medical colleagues, or through writing about medicine.  The target audience is medical students with clinical experience, although pre-clinical students and interested non-medical students are invited to participate as well.  We'll be looking at popular works of medical literature directed to the public by physician authors such as Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman, narratives of the medical school and residency experience, the history of "medical public relations", and what science shows us about communicating to patients at large.  On the public side, we'll examine depictions of medicine in movies and popular television (such as "House", "Gray's Anatomy", and "ER" ), discuss patient self education in the post-Google world, and examine the application of  the "customer service" model to providing medical services.   Readings will be kept enjoyable and achievable for a medical student audience, and the class format is group discussion.

Older Adults and End of Life Care: Empowering Through Stories
170.30 (1 unit)
Student contacts: Tess Lang and Arul Thangavel
Select Tuesdays beginning 1/15/08 at 12 Noon in S -176 and 3 clinical sessions to be scheduled at students’ convenience.

The effectiveness and pleasure of clinical practice are enhanced when providers have the skills to recognize, absorb, interpret, and be moved by their patient’s stories. What is it like to grow old? To be ill or disabled? To know death is near? In this course, students will learn interviewing techniques (both medical and anthropological), visit an older patient in the home and/or hospital, elicit a narrative, write it up, discuss it with the patient and classmates, then work as a group to make a compilation of personal and illness narratives. In the process, students will read exerpts from seminal illness narratives, improve their writing skills, learn strategies for approaching discussion of end of life and quality of life issues with patients, and become familiar with simple tools for assessing the health and well-being of older patients.

Narrative Medicine: The Medical Student as Writer
170.31 (1 unit)
Student contact: Mellody Hayes
Alternate Thursdays from  5-7 PM beginning 1/17/08 in N417

The goal of this creative writing workshop will be to help students develop skills as writers of fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction. While many may choose to write about their training experiences, there are no subject matter restrictions. The primary goals are to improve as writers and to move from ideas toward finished essays and stories. Students will read and workshop each other’s work, read established writers focusing on craft and technique, and do in-class writing exercises to help generate new writing. Previous writing experience not required. 

The course will be co-taught by Bill Hayes, author of The Anatomist, Five Quarts, and Sleep Demons and Louise Aronson, MD MFA, UCSF medicine faculty member whose short fiction has won national literary awards.

Fall 2007 Elective Courses

Area of Concentration in Medical Humanities
(SOM)

140.04. This course fulfills the seminar requirement for the Medical Humanities Area of Concentration. The seminar introduces students to a range of methodological approaches within the humanities. Sessions focus on specific topics that lend themselves to compelling discussion and debate in relation to medicine and its cultural representations. Contact course director: Dr. Brian Dolan

• Syllabus (Fall 2007)
• More Information

The Healer's Art
(Family and Community Medicine)

171.01. (1.5 units) Wi. Prerequisites: 1st & 2nd year medical students. Lecture 3 hours. Workshop 15 hours.
R. Remen
Learning to strenghthen your humanity and remain open-hearted can make the difference between professional burnout and a fulfilling life. An opportunity to learn tools for self care, healing loss, finding meaning, strenghthening commitment and becoming a true physician.

Introduction to Narrative Medicine

Medicine 170.31A
Louise Aronson, MD, MFA
Narrative is everywhere in medicine: in patient (his)stories, in the notes we write, in our formal presentations and in conversations with colleagues and families. Traditionally, medical education has provided little training in how best to create and interpret such narratives. This course – the first in a series – will use medical fiction, essays from the lay press, great literature, illness narratives, medical autobiographies, stories from practice and, with permission, student writings to introduce participants to the rapidly growing field of Narrative Medicine. The course will include some lecture but largely be conducted as a seminar. Each of the instructors will be responsible for one session but several will participate in every class. The final few sessions can be tailored to students’ interests.

Supervised Study
(Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)

198.0 (1-5 units) § Fa, Wi, Sp, SS1, SS2, SS3. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Project 3-15 hours.
Staff
Historical research and/or directed reading under supervision of a faculty member with approval of the department chairperson. (department: HISTSOCMED) Contact Prof. Dorothy Porter