Clinical Studies – Ethics/Humanities/Health Law Foundations Course

2002-3

Information Regarding Assignments

 

General Information: Everyone is required to do assignment 3. In addition, you must do either assignment 1 or 2.  All assignments are Pass/Fail.  If you receive a Fail on an assignment, you will be given an opportunity to redo it.  In addition to the assignments described below, short questions may be included on the clinical skills exam.

 

Assignments

 

1.  Journal Keeping:  Concerns exist about how your values and attitudes might change as a result of the 'professionalizing' process in medical school.  Keeping a regular journal of events during your medical school career, your responses to them, your attitudes and feelings will encourage you to be introspective and to identify changes that may be taking place in your values.  In addition, keeping a journal will give you a chance to record your observations about medical education and practice.

 

* Your journal, should you keep one, is personal. No one but you will read it unless you wish otherwise.  The facilitator may require you to provide a brief write-up of issues you have identified in your journal.

 

* If you choose to do this assignment, you should indicate this by Friday, Sept. 6, 2002.  A facilitator will then be assigned to you.  You will meet with your facilitator on a monthly basis to discuss your progress.

 

* If you choose this option, but then do not keep up with your commitment to keep a journal, you may still fulfil this requirement by opting to do assignment 2 instead.

 

2.  Critical Review: Write a critical review of one of the following:

 

* Anatole Broyard, Intoxicated by my illness and other writings on life and death (1992)

* Arthur Kleinman, The Illness Narratives (1988)

* Arthur Frank, At the Will of the Body:  Reflections on Illness (1991)

* Robertson Davies, The Cunning Man (1994)

* Compare David Loxtercamp, A Measure of My Days:  The Journal of a Country Doctor (1997) with John Berger and Jean Mohr, The Fortunate Man:  The Story of a Country Doctor (1967)

 

You may write on a different work but must have it approved by one of the course instructors.  The due date for this assignment is Friday, Feb. 22, 2003.  The maximum length for this assignment is 2500 words.

 

3. Take Home Exam—Case Analysis:  Details of this assignment will be provided in mid-October.  It will consist of a 3-5 page analysis of the ethical dimensions of a clinical case (perhaps taken from a work of fiction).  This assignment will be due on Friday, Dec. 13 by 5 p.m.