Medical Humanities and Arts Program > Required Curriculum

Course Overview

The Medical Ethics, Sociology and Humanities (MESH) course is designed to teach medical students the social context in which clinical medicine is practiced. The MESH course integrates the teaching of medical ethics, framing how medicine relates to civic and political processes, depiction of the physician’s role within society and medical narratives. Designed as a two-year course, the first year addresses foundational issues in medical ethics, social determinants of health and narrative. Year two builds on year-one foundations, focusing on the intersections between the clinic and structural violence, health policy, narrative and arts.

MESH Sessions

Sample sessions include, but are not limited to:

Narrative and Data
Cultural Humility
Social Determinants of Health
Beyond LGBTQ+ 101: Gender-Affirming Care
Health Care Policy
Ethical Issues at the End-of-Life

A bustling crowd of 18 people pass by an oversized stethoscope to illustrate the medical field of Public Health. Some walk, jog, or ride past while others stand as if they are out in public. Conceptual vector illustration presented in isometric view over a blue background on a 16x9 artboard. Colors include warm off-white, gray, turquoise/teal, and magenta

Critical Reflection Sessions & Clerkship Rotations

Through Critical Reflection Methodology and Clerkship Rotations, third-year medical students are supported in connecting their clinical experience by examining how reflection can promote perspective taking, compassion and empathy, enhance their self-awareness as medical professionals and strengthen patient advocacy skills. Students can also gain greater insight into their biases, explore different ways of addressing challenging encounters and understand specific ways to develop positive relationships with patients, families and the communities they serve.

The Family Medicine clerkship involves a writing assignment and discussion session that focuses on difficult student-patient encounters. Students subsequently participate in a facilitated two-hour session to exchange and examine different points of view, and to interrogate their own assumptions and biases.

The UC Irvine Program in Geriatrics has instituted an innovative live theater performance that highlights the dos and don’ts of patient care for older adults.

The Medical Reader’s Theatre (MRT) is a performance method that utilizes minimal or no set design and costuming, directing the focus of the performers towards the script and its themes. In collaboration with the UCI Geriatrics program and local residents of a retirement community, we have integrated the MRT into family medicine clerkship requirements. Similar to our Medical Improv elective, MRT aims to develop and strengthen empathy and communication, particularly with aging patients. Students are presented with opportunities to practice active listening and share space with people who have diverse life stories, which can improve the future delivery of care.

Students meet for one hour with facility residents to participate in a brief skit that highlights issues of importance to older patients. These may include ageism, multiple and chronic health problems, disability, dementia and Alzheimers disease and end-of-life issues. The role-plays are followed by facilitated discussion.

The Pediatrics session focuses on a project that may be based on child advocacy, ethics, the physician-patient-family relationship or any other aspect of the clinical experience. Students have creative control over the format and may work individually or in groups.

Required two-hour sessions in Surgery and Internal Medicine clerkships that use intimate, small group settings to engage in narrative medicine, i.e., telling stories about memorable patient encounters. Students are expected to present patient care situations that troubled, angered, confused or inspired them. Subsequent discussion explores in a nonjudgmental way various relational, ethical and communication issues raised. Emphasis is on self-awareness, reflective practice and translation of values into language and behavior.

Electives