Course Descriptions

Patient Doctor I Required Medical Humanities Component
And Linked Literature And Medicine Elective
(1999-2001)

Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D., Director of Medical Humanities;
Elizabeth Morrison, M.D., MS.Ed., Director, Patient-Doctor I;
Department of Family Medicine

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.

Participants: Required component – 92 first year medical students; Elective component – approximately 10 first year students

Faculty: Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D., Director of Medical Humanities in Family Medicine; Elizabeth Morrison, M.D., MS.Ed., Director, Patient-Doctor I; guest physician faculty

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 complete two required point of view writing assignments based on a literary reading reflecting patient perspective.

Module A: Doctor-Patient Communication (Elective Only)

"When You Come Into My Room" Stephen Schmidt

"Taking the History" David Watts; "Learning to Listen" David Frankel; "The Knitted Glove" Jack Coulehan; "A Good Story" Michael Crichton

Module 1: Pain

Required: "Pain" Emily Dickinson; "Bad Days Are No Fun At All" Linda Martinson

Elective: "Musee des Beaux Arts" W.H. Auden; "The Pain" John Graham-Pole; "The Patient" Peter Meinke; "I Can’t Feel Your Pain" Linda Martinson

Module 2: Health Promotion

Required: "The Promise" Veneta Masson

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

Module 3: Cross-Cultural Medicine

Required: " The Appointment" Lawrence Schneiderman

Elective: "What is Lost" Peter Pereira; "H.I.Vato" Alberto Antonio Araiza; "Medicine Stone" Jack Coulehan; "Fathering" Bharati Murkhajee

Module 4: Geriatrics

Required: "Aging Gratefully" John Graham-Pole; "First Visit" Maurice Schwartz

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

Module 5: Sexuality

Required: "Invasions" Perri Klass

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

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 point of view writing for enhancing communication skills and improving empathy for the patient’s experience in the interview process. The elective is evaluated using a separate questionnaire designed to explore these issues in depth.