Humanities in Medicine: Reflecting About Professional Identity (Non-Clinical Elective)

2 units

This elective provides a creative space for using many types of activities in which to reflect about the professional identity of physicians. Creative activities may include narrative writing, poetry, drawing, video, graphic design, textile creations, and others, as well as activities for which classes and studios are available in the community at places like the Craft Alliance and the South Broadway Art Project. The elective offers faculty and/or WUSM alumni as reflective partners, as well as collaborations among students or with community organizations. Students will create independent proposals (as individuals or small groups) for a reflection project that involves the arts/humanities and relates to medicine/physicians' roles/professional identity, and make plans to complete a project to share online at the end of the elective or in another way. The course will involve students reading individually the course outline in Keystone, then drafting proposals for their projects, to include an outline of what they are going to do, the expected timeline, the resources/materials they might need and use, and what they hope to get out of this project (how this will help them grow individually as medical professionals). The course requirements are to produce some reflective product, in each student's choice of medium (visual art, writing, etc.) and to write a brief reflective narrative at the end of the session on their experience and inspiration for their work and how they have grown/changed while participating in this project.