Medical Humanities
The Medical Humanities program at Sydney Medical School explores the human side of medicine and aims to overcome the separation of clinical care from the human experience of illness through the use of concepts and analytic tools from various arts and social sciences disciplines. The program provides insight into the human condition, and offers an historical perspective on medical practice.
Knowledge of literature and the arts helps to develop and nurture skills of observation, analysis, empathy, and self-reflection - skills that are essential for humane medical care. The social sciences help us to understand how bioscience and medicine take place within cultural and social contexts and how culture interacts with the individual experience of illness and the way medicine is practiced.
The Medical Humanities program is offered at three award levels, graduate certificate, graduate diploma and master's degree.
Goals of the program
Students will demonstrate the ability to:
• identify the differences between a biomedical view of health, illness and disease and the viewpoint of various disciplines in the arts and humanities; • describe how conceptions of medicine developed over time and continue to develop, and how these are likely to shape our understanding of health and wellbeing; • critically assess and respond to the individual and social circumstances in which ill-health takes place
• improve their skills in the five areas of knowledge, thinking, personal skills, personal attributes and practical skills; • creatively approach understanding diverse experiences and responses to illness, health, and caring for others.