About Medical Humanities

Medical Humanities

On Friday, October 22, 2004, Baylor's Regents approved a Medical Humanities Program in the College of Arts and Sciences, making Baylor one of a handful of institutions with such a program for undergraduates. The roots of the program extend back to 1998. Our program began when a university committee was established representing a broad range of disciplines within the sciences and the humanities. Out of that deliberation a minor in Medical Humanities was established six years ago, and the funding of a University Program was subsequently approved last year by the Board of Regents. Currently, we have between around 100 students at any one time taking courses in the minor.

Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary program, involving courses from literature, religion, philosophy, history, economics, and ethics and emphasizing the history of Christian spirituality, models of medical knowledge and practice, patient/physician relationships, hospital-based ministry, and the nature of health care in the 21st century. The courses are popular, filling up quickly, and leave many students with a deeper and broader exposure and appreciation for the role of the humanities in medicine. Students also rotate through various hospital internships, each one different yet exposing them to the real world of medicine and decision making that often involves deep ethical and spiritual issues. Feedback from the medical schools has been extremely positive, giving our students an edge over other major universities in our region in the admissions process.