The Division of
Medical Humanities was created in 1982, with the help of a
three-year start-up grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller
Foundation, to help integrate the insights and methods of the
humanities into medical education and medical practice. The
following overview is a brief synopsis of activities the Division
has undertaken.
Teaching
The primary
responsibility of the faculty of the Division of Medical Humanities is to
provide education to health care professionals and students throughout UAMS
and the broader medical community. The faculty offers educational
opportunities in many forums, using various media, for hundreds of people
each year.
College of Medicine Medical Student Ethics
Course
A course
in medical ethics is required of all second-year medical
students. The course uses case presentations and small
group discussions led by physician and humanities faculty
to explore issues such as confidentiality, truth telling,
informed consent, refusal of life-sustaining treatment,
euthanasia, cost containment, and allocation of
scarce resources. The course continues with ethics
conferences in the third-year clinical clerkships.
The fourth year of medical school at UAMS is primarily constituted by
elective courses. The
Division offers a number of elective seminars that meet
in the evening once a week for a semester. Students
explore medical themes from the perspectives of
literature, history, anthropology, law, and communication
theory.
Provide a basis for ethical
considerations during residency and fellowship training at DAMS and ACH,
the Division has provided web-based material for an 8module ethics
course administered by the DAMS Office of Graduate Medical Education.
HELP (Humanities, Ethics, Law and Professionalism)
The
UAMS Division of Medical Humanities has begun a new educational
initiative—HELP (Humanities, Ethics, Law, and Professionalism).
All our educational efforts now fall under the HELP umbrella as
we try both to clarify and expand our efforts to HELP the UAMS
and broader community.
In
this light, we offer recurring educational conferences, now all
part of the HELP series:
Medical
Humanities Grand Rounds:
Quarterly (and on other special occasions)
the HELP initiative will
sponsor lectures in its Medical Humanities Grand Rounds (MHGR)
series. MHGR is an opportunity for experts in the fields of
philosophy of medicine, bioethics, history of medicine,
literature and medicine, and other related fields to present
their work to UAMS faculty, staff, and students, as well as the
health care community and general public. The speakers include
nationally recognized experts from UAMS and Little Rock as well
as professionals and scholars from across the country. MGHR
presentations last one hour and offer [1-hour of] continuing
medical education credit.
First Tuesday Ethics Discussion (FTED): Each month, Arkansas Children’s Hospital
(as part of the HELP initiative) sponsors a monthly
discussion of ethical issues in pediatric care. The speakers come
primarily from the ACH community with emphasis on ethical topics that lend
themselves to open discussion. These FTEDs are open to all
Intensive Workshop in Health Care Ethics: In the Spring of each year, the Arkansas
Ethics Consortium (hosted by UAMS) sponsors a two-day intensive
HELP workshop. The
workshop is designed for anyone interested in learning more
about ethical and legal issues in medical care. The first day
presents basic concepts in ethics and health law, and the second
day focuses on a different specific HELPing topic each year.
Division faculty actively pursue
scholarship and research in their fields of specialization and
have published numerous books and journal articles. Individual
faculty members have national reputations in the areas of
end-of-life care, geriatric issues, pediatric ethics, Civil War
medicine, and narrative medicine, to name but a few areas of
concentration. For a more detailed presentation of their work,
please consult our faculty pages.
Professional
Service
The
Division serves the greater professional community in numerous
ways. Our faculty members sit on local, regional, and national
committees, serve on editorial boards, and hold office in their
respective professional societies. A consultation service is
available for ethically challenging cases. In addition, faculty
members present numerous talks and workshops each year at the
request of others (we are happy to honor such requests as
schedules permit-please contact us).
Examples of service
. Executive Editor: Literature &Medicine
(Anderson)
· Editorial Boards: Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
(Hackler),
Health Care Analysis
(Hackler), William James
Studies (Hester)
. Officers in Professional
Societies: History of Medicine (Pitcock), William
James Society (Hester)
· Other Initiatives:
Pediatric Ethics Consortium (Hester); Pediatric Ethics
