An integrated humanities–social sciences course in health sciences education: proposed design, effectiveness, and associated factors

Abstract

Background: Previous research has not provided enough direction regarding effective content design of courses integrating the humanities and social sciences in medical and dental education. This study aims at exploring how an Integrated Medical/Dental Humanities-Social Medicine/Dentistry course may be designed; how effective it may be in terms of student growth in knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations; and associated factors. Methods: The course was designed by distilling commonalities in the international standards for medical/dental education proposed by seven major health organizations. This analysis resulted in a curriculum covering nine major topics: history, professionalism, communication, ethics, management, policy, insurance, law, and research methodology. During the 2017 calendar year, data was collected and statistically analyzed from 68 third-year predoctoral students enrolled in the resulting MDHS 13-week course.Results: Participants showed growth in skills, aspirations, knowledge, and attitudes, with the greatest change occurring in skills, then aspirations, knowledge, and attitudes. Knowledge growth was the only variable significantly related to student achievement of course objectives (β = 0.635, t (63) = 3.394, p = 0.001). The topics that students perceived as most critical were insurance, policy, management, and law. The perceived importance of research was most common among participants and was significantly related to all learning outcomes (For knowledge, β = 0.213, t (63) = 2.203, p = 0.031; for attitudes, β = 0.784, t (63) = 10.257, p = 0.000; for skills, β = 0.769, t (63) = 9.772, p = 0.000; and aspirations β = 0.639, t (63) = 7.595, p = 0.000). Conclusions: This study proposed a framework for humanities-social sciences education in health sciences education and analyzed its implementation. The empirical evaluation of its effectiveness and factors related to successful outcomes found that students perceived gains in their knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations for humanistic and social aspects of dentistry/medicine. In addition, their recognition of the importance of research was associated with the greatest growth in all four learning outcomes. This study may contribute to the improved design of integrated humanities-social sciences courses.

Co-teaching Model Promotes True Integration for Integrated Curriculum of Urology

“…Isolation among subjects leads to rarely generate the expected level of interest and curiosity in the students (6). In an attempt to enhance meaningful learning, integrated curriculum has been proposed to be incorporated in the medical education system (7)(8)(9). Tongji University promoted integrated curriculum in 2010.…”

Medical Law and Medical School Curricula: A Systematic Review

“…Strategies to improve medical students' understanding of legal medicine include individualized medicinelaw electives, mock trials, and simulations [7][8][9]13,22,28,30,33,[35][36][37]40,42]. If possible, collaborations between local law and medical school faculty can optimize the use of institutional resources while providing students the opportunity to interact and mitigate negative perceptions and biases.…”

Applying course mapping to facilitate an integrated dental course

“…With the advancement of knowledge in dentistry through innovative technologies, the information students must learn has increased exponentially 1,2 . One idea is to combine classes that are taught separately into an integrated course 3,4 .…”

“…The advantages of integrated courses include reduced repetition, more intentional reinforcement, and topics taught in tandem for better retention (Figure 1). 1,3,5 Such an undertaking poses challenges, especially in our 3‐month‐long first‐year DMD course, Craniofacial Biology, which involves 23 lecturers covering nine subjects (Biochemistry, Nutrition, Stem Cells, Genetics, Histology, Craniofacial Function, Periodontology, Cariology, and Pharmacology). The focus of our study is to achieve the following objectives: Establish communication channels among faculty. Create an integrated narrative of topics. Eliminate unintentional repetition of topics. …”

“…With the advancement of knowledge in dentistry through innovative technologies, the information students must learn has increased exponentially. 1,2 One idea is to combine classes that are taught separately into an integrated course. 3,4 The advantages of integrated courses include reduced repetition, more intentional reinforcement, and topics taught in tandem for better retention (Figure 1).…”