2019-2020 Caspersen School of Graduate Studies (Admitted Fall 2019/Spring 2020) [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Medical Humanities
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About the Program
Humanizing medicine and care is the mission of the Medical Humanities program at Drew University. The curriculum melds academic inquiry with real-world experience to prepare students for careers throughout the healthcare industry and beyond.
There is ever-growing demand for professionals who understand and synthesize the ethical, political, historical, cultural, and practical aspects of health care to influence the debate on good medicine and care. This particularly concerns the implementation, regulation, and dissemination of health care in everyday consulting rooms, on hospital wards, in residential care contexts and at home. Modern health care flourishes on scientific knowledge and evidence-based medicine, however, these late-modern features are also cause for concern. Presently, advances in science and technology often outpace our ability to understand and cope with new concepts and situations. Health care professionals, patients and their (extended) families experience discomfort during their encounters with institutions and systems. Practitioners report diminishing morale and professional fulfilment, resulting in a particularly acute need for medicine, health and care humanitarians. This program addresses these marked needs and offers new openings for humanization and care.
The field of Medical and Health Humanities at its best brings the creative arts, ethical theory as well as critical socio-political analysis to everyday practices of medicine and care. Transcending the normative disciplinary boundaries of academia, the Medical Humanities program at Drew engages numerous areas of study–from the arts, history, ethics, and philosophy, to anthropology, literature and religion–in a dialogue that studies the meaning of health, wellbeing, and healing in relation to the individual and society.
The Medical Humanities program can be followed on a full- or part-time basis, allowing flexibility to accommodate your schedule. Designed with working professionals in mind, courses are offered in the late afternoon and early evening.
The Medical Humanities program is conducted jointly by the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University and The Overlook Medical Center, Atlantic Health.
Director
Merel Visse (mvisse@drew.edu)
Advanced Research
Medical Humanities students demonstrate competence in advanced research, interpretation, and exposition of a pertinent area of study that offers an original and meaningful contribution to human thought and relations. Master’s candidates complete a thesis and Doctor of Medical Humanities candidates complete a dissertation.
Curricular Components
Courses emphasizing Biomedical and Care Ethics explore health care issues encountered in practice and policy, including ethical and religious debates concerning abortion, death and dying, and human experimentation; the language of ethics in everyday situations of care; and the interpretation of ethical issues highlighted in the media.
Courses emphasizing Narratives in medicine and care explore how to “tell,” “read” and interpret the stories and discourse of illness and well being. Medical Narrative employs multiple approaches to facilitate patient-practitioner-caregiver communication and understanding, including anecdote, medical history and case presentation.
Clinical Practica involve the incorporation of medical humanities theory into health care practices.The practicum is individualized according to each student’s needs and interests, and can include clinical rounds, clinical observation, and Bioethics Committee meetings. Therefore, the program works in close alliance with health care organizations like the Atlantic Health System and RWJ Barnabas Health.
Programs
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