This course employs fiction to introduce topics of current importance in clinical and social medicine. Readings include selections by Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell, Pearl S. Buck, Doris Lessing, Shusaku Endo, Grace Paley, John Updike, Elie Wiesel, Ethan Canin, and Michael Lacombe. These will be supplemented by clinical studies, reviews, and editorials from the current medical literature. Students gain an appreciation of the reciprocal relationships between literature, clinical medicine, public health, and medical ethics. They will explore how questions pertinent to the care of individuals, communities and to ethical dilemmas can be investigated through clinical analysis of both literary works and scientific studies.
Course is open to medical, dental, public health, and graduate nursing students.
Group discussion will be emphasized, and lecture time kept to a minimum. Estimated reading time approximately 1-2 hours per week. There are no papers and no final exam. Students will explore their own backgrounds and attitudes, beliefs and values. Students will seek to understand how cultural differences between a patient and health care provider can influence the interaction, and learn skills necessary for effective communication.