Health Humanities Track

Program Description

Students will be exposed to and engage in selected literature, visual arts, music, theatrical performance, narrative medicine, both written and oral, and scientific scholarship about the humanities. Students will also participate in service learning opportunities. At the culmination of the FLEX Phase, all students will present their work at the FLEX Fair in either oral or poster format.

FLEX Pathways Core Objectives

  1. Develop skills for self-directed and lifelong learning.
  2. Demonstrate strategies for analyzing, identifying and improving personal deficiencies in knowledge and skills by setting learning and improvement goals.
  3. Define a scholarly question.
  4. Incorporate constructive feedback.
  5. Retrieve, critically appraise, and integrate current, evidence‐ or research-based biomedical information into patient care, clinical decision-making, or scholarly work.
  6. Make judgments and draw conclusions based on evidence.
  7. Apply the foundational principles of hypothesis-driven inquiry to patient care.
  8. Apply foundational principles of service‐learning with reflection on outcomes for patients and populations.
  9. Communicate effectively with patients, families, colleagues, and the public through the use of active listening and appropriate verbal, nonverbal and written skills.
  10. Prepare an oral presentation of their project and communicate their findings to their peers at the end of the program and at other institutional forums.
  11. Described the key ethical principles and specific issues involved in the planning, implementation and completion of human subjects research.

Health Humanities Track-Specific Objectives

  1. Define a scholarly question with a focus on health humanities.
  2. Complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) mandatory training on the Responsible Conduct of Research.
  3. Explain how social determinants, health behaviors and preventive measures affect disease, illness, and health in individuals and across populations regionally, nationally, and globally.
  4. Describe health disparities and health care disparities, how they affect patient and system outcomes, and identify ways to effectively address disparities.
  5. Foster therapeutic and ethically sound relationships with patients across a broad range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds with respect, empathy and support of emotions.
  6. Demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to the personhood of the patient inclusive of culture, race, ethnicity, spirituality, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical characteristics, medical condition, disabilities, socioeconomic status, family‐context and other aspects of personal and health beliefs, practices and decisions.
  7. Demonstrate sensitivity, honesty, and compassion in difficult conversations, including those about death, end of life, adverse events, bad news, disclosure of errors, and other sensitive topics.
  8. Demonstrate honesty, integrity, respect, and compassion in all interactions with patients, peers, faculty, staff, and other healthcare professionals in all settings.
  9. Recognize that ambiguity is part of clinical health care and respond by utilizing appropriate resources in dealing with uncertainty.
  10. Demonstrate a commitment to personal health and well‐being, and recognize and address personal attributes, attitudes, and behaviors that may adversely influence one’s effectiveness as a physician.

 

Mentor Role and Responsibilities

 

Potential Humanities Mentors for Spring 2023

  • Caroline DeLongchamps (delongch@musc.edu) – Patient Centered Care
  • Leigh Vaughan, M.D. (vaughanl@musc.edu) – Palliative Care
  • Jessica Bullington, RN (bullingj@musc.edu) -Palliative Care and Complementary Therapies, Legacy Work
  • Elizabeth Higgins, M.D. (higginel@musc.edu) – Palliative Care, Moral Distress
  • DaNine Fleming, Ph.D.(flemid@musc.edu) – Chief Diversity Officer, Diversity, Inclusion, Unconscious Bias
  • Marvella Ford (fordmar@musc.edu) – Health Care Disparities , Hollings Cancer Center
  • Elizabeth Santa Ana, Ph.D. (Elizabeth.SantaAna2@va.gov) -Associate Director, Investigator Charleston Health Equity and Rural Outreach Innovation Center (HEROIC), Co-Director VA Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment (MIRECC), Ralph H. Johnson VAMC - Homelessness in the Veteran Population
  • Brian Fors, Ph.D. (fors@musc.edu) – Curator, Waring Library - History
  • Anita Ramsetty, M.D. (ramsetty@musc.edu) - Department of Family Medicine, Cares Clinic
  • Morgan Khawaja, M.D. (headden@musc.edu) – Department of Pediatrics, Sexual Education in Charleston County
  • Sundaravadevil Balasubramanian, Ph.D. (balasubr@musc.edu) – Science of Meditation
  • Katie Hinson, M.S. (hinsonka@musc.edu) - Manager MUSC Hospital Arts in Healing Program
  • Jacobo Mintzer, Ph.D. (mintzerj@musc.edu) – Role of Music and Art in Neuro rehabilitation
  • Whitney Marvin, M.D. (marvin@musc.edu) – Pediatric Critical Care
  • Leon Walthall, M.D. (walthall@musc.edu) - Internal Medicine, Mindfulness