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
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 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.