Course Description
ELTU 3017, Medical Humanities, has been designed in close coordination with the Medical Faculty at CUHK. This course is multi-disciplinary and considers how doctors and health are presented through film, images, literature, poetry and the media, and how students can prepare in a humanistic way to meet the challenges of a career as a physician. The topic list is broad, including the physician-patient relationship, intercultural communication, stereotyping in the health professions, ideas about death and dying (as they relate to spiritual beliefs and organ donation), the pitfalls and potential of integrated medicine, the management of medical information in the media and how the Internet impacts patients and doctors, amongst other topics. Particularly, the course is designed to focus on developing students’ skills in critical reading, impromptu speaking, analyzing videos and texts, and writing summaries and reflective texts. There will be one assigned reading each week and students should be prepared to present the texts to the class and/or engage in panel discussions about the texts.