Curriculum

The Department of Humanities in Medicine offers a variety of required and elective courses to first, second, and fourth year medical students. Courses are required in Humanities in Medicine during the first and second years and in medical jurisprudence in the fourth year. Electives are also offered during the first, second and fourth years including opportunities for directed research with an opportunity for publication and self-directed research with an opportunity to travel to London.  Educational symposia, workshops and seminars with visiting speakers are available to students and faculty in the College of Medicine and are often open to the public.

First Year Courses

Interprofessional Healthcare Ethics (Required)

This course introduces students to ethical issues that can be encountered in the Healthcare Professions. The course is done in with an interprofessional approach, as Medical, Nursing, and Pharmacology students take the course together.

Anatomy Yoga (Elective)

Learning yoga poses simultaneously with gross anatomy blocks that teach muscles used during the poses has many advantages. Participation in yoga has been shown to decrease anxiety in med school students, particularly during exams. The overall goal of Anatomy Yoga! is to engage highly stressed medical students as active participants in a wellness technique they can use – both for themselves and later with patients, in addition to reinforcing gross musculoskeletal anatomy lessons.

Ethics of Human Sexuality (Elective)

This course is designed to help medical students better assist patients and colleagues in dealing with  the complex issues involving human sexuality.

Integrative Medicine (Elective)

An overview of the most commonly used CAM modalities in the US as identified by NIH/NCCAM with emphasis on the core knowledge skills as identified by the Consortium of Academic Centers for Integrative Medicine

Medicine & Society Through Film (Elective)

The students are briefly introduced to camera techniques and film styles in order to understand how films [visual media] communicate their subject and to explore how we respond to visual images and the role of selective attention.

Second Year Courses

Humanities Selective (Required) - The Selective courses are offered three times in during Phase II, two sessions during the first year, and one session during the second year. Students are required to participate in these courses, but can select from a number of different options. Currently, 8 Selectives are being offered in College Station and 7 Selectives are offered in Temple. The Selectives being offered are: 

College Station Selectives

• Cultural Diversity in Medicine
• End of Life Care
• History of Medicine: Great Pandemics and Our Responses to Them
• Leadership in Medicine: A Closer Look Into the Successful Doctor-Patient Relationship
• Legal Medicine
• Media, Health, & Medicine
• Perception, Art, and Clinical Judgment
• Spirituality and Faith in Medicine

Temple Selectives

• Abuse Through the Ages
• Brief History of Biomed
• End of Life Care
• Intro to Medical History
• Literature of Medicine
• Literature, History, and Medicine
• Multidisciplinary Medicine

Mentorship in Leadership (Elective)

This course is a one-on-one mentorship with a leader who is a faculty member in a part of Texas A&M other than the college of medicine.  Mentors have come from a wide variety of fields—for example, business, liberal arts, architecture, agriculture, physical science, engineering, and veterinary medicine.  Many but not all mentors have some professional interests relating to medicine and health care.  The student and mentor decide together on the mentorship plan.  In some cases, the mentorship consists mainly of discussing matters of mutual interest; in other cases, it includes a project or other structured activity.

Fourth Year Courses

Medical Jurisprudence (Required)

Directed Research (Elective)

Directed Research in History of Medicine done in London, UK (Elective)

Fellowship in Leadership (Elective)

Healthcare Delivery and Finance (Elective)