Syllabi: Medical Humanities in Patient-Doctor I

INSTITUTION: University of California, Irvine

COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D. Medical Humanities Content Area Expert
University of California, Irvine College of Medicine
email: jfshapiro@msx.ndc.mc.uci.edu

ENROLLMENT: 1st year Medical students; elective; 10 students

SEMESTER: Spring 2000

ELECTIVE LINK: This course is thematically linked to Patient Doctor I.

DESCRIPTION:
Patient-Doctor I is a required 60 hour course taught in the first year of medical school. Its emphasis is on training in doctor-patient communication skills as well as providing an introduction to particularly problematic aspects of doctor-patient communication, such as taking a sexual history, pain assessment, cross-cultural and cross-language interviewing, geriatric encounters, and promoting positive health and lifestyle change. During each course module, students meet with faculty in small groups to discuss relevant issues. As part of this activity, a literary selection is included that must be read by both students and faculty and then incorporated into the discussion.

OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the course, students will have developed the following skills:

• Improved ability to recognize the importance of listening to and attentiveness toward patients
• Improved ability to identify difficulties inherent in addressing sensitive and subjective issues in medical interviewing
• Increased empathy for the patient experience in medical interviewing

FORMAT:
Monthly small group discussion in which a literary selection is used to represent one form of knowledge about patient and physician experience. In addition to reading and discussion, students are asked to keep a journal of their experiences during the year.

REQUIRED READING (all excerpts):

Module 1: Learning to Listen (Doctor-Patient Communication)
"Taking the History" David Watts; "Learning to Listen" David Frankel; "The Knitted Glove" Jack Coulehan; "A Good Story" Michael Crichton

Module 2: Pain
"Musee des Beaux Arts" W.H. Auden; "The Pain" John Graham-Pole; "The Patient" Peter Meinke; "I canÍt feel your pain" Linda Martinson

Module 3: Sexuality
"A Medical Diptych" Ronald Pies; "Nighttime Travelers" (excerpt) Ethan Canin; "Your Voice" Rafael Campo; "Tell Me, Tell Me" Kenneth Zola

Module 4: Cross-Cultural Medicine
"What is Lost" Peter Pereira; "H.I.Vato" Alberto Antonio Araiza; "Medicine Stone" Jack Coulehan; "Fathering" Bharati Murkhajee

Module 5: Geriatrics
"Lousy on Admission" Michael Crichton; "Forsythia" James Sedwick; "Nursing Home" Barry Spacks; "Old Man in Bedclothes" Jeanne LeVasseur

Module 6: Health Promotion
"Diabetes" James Dickey; "Two Suffering Men" Eugene Hirsch; "Rubbers and Foam" Vincent Hanlon; "Walking the Dog" John Wright

EVALUATION:
The course employs a standard end-of-year evaluation questionnaire. Specific questions are included that address the utility and value of the literary readings and the journaling for enhancing communication skills and improving empathy for the patientÍs experience in the interview process. The elective is evaluated using a separate questionnaire designed to explore these issues in depth.