Why Medical Humanities?

Rationales for the Medical Humanities Minor

The rationales for the Medical Humanities Minor are fourfold:

1. First, medical schools are actively seeking candidates who have a broad background in the humanities such as those outlined in the proposed minor. For example, the new provisionally guaranteed admission program, Baylor2 Medical Track, for Baylor students to Baylor College of Medicine is expressly designed to encourage diversification by lowering its admission requirements in science course work and its grade point standard--both to encourage nontraditional course selections among the participants. With the advent of a state requirement of one hour of Continuing Medical Education credit in ethics for practicing physicians in Texas, even the state medical schools are seeking students who have enhanced their educational backgrounds in areas such as diversity (both ethnic and religious), ethics, philosophy, literature, etc. Therefore, the Medical Humanities Minor will give our premedical students a distinctive advantage when they apply for admission to medical school.
2. We anticipate that the Medical Humanities Minor will increase the students' effectiveness as clinicians by providing them with a broader understanding of the human experience of illness and caregiving, as well as by assisting them to develop insight into the spiritual dimension of medicine.
3. While the undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree requires, and the Bachelor of Science degree allows, a measure of diversity in the students' training, the more advanced level of courses in the proposed Medical Humanities Minor encourages a more in-depth inquiry into the liberal arts education. Further, the range of elective courses is substantial. And, if the minor proves to be as popular among the many premedical students as is anticipated by the Task Force, the enrollments in the listed, upper division courses should increase.
4. It is the intent of the Medical Humanities Minor to provide students with an opportunity to explore the Christian perspective on the human condition as it relates to spiritual formation. The proposed new course, M H 2301 (History of Christian Spirituality) provides the interested student with an avenue to Christian spiritual formation whereas the alternative course, REL 3345 (Religions of the World), provides an alternative to the increasing population of non-Christian premedical students who seek out the quality educational experience which Baylor provides. The Task Force would hope that the non-Christian students would avail themselves of the History of Christian Spirituality course as one of the Elective options in III. above to broaden their cultural understanding of their peers as well as future patients. In like manner, we hope that the Christian students might similarly explore the Religions of the World course as one of their Elective courses in III. above for similar reasons.