This past
week on Monday night, I had the amazing opportunity to meet the man, the myth,
the legend, Dr. Paul Farmer. He has been
my biggest idol for many years, and is one of the many reasons I chose to pursue
a career in public health. At his
lecture, he spoke mostly about Hurricane Matthew and MDR-TB. At the end of his lecture however, audience
members were allowed to go up to the microphone and ask questions. I did not get the opportunity to ask him how
he is so awesome (sorry guys) but a professor (this was held at IUPUI) in
sociology asked Dr. Farmer an important question: how has your anthropology background
helped you in your medical career? Dr.
Farmer answered poetically, and I’m paraphrasing, “Every time I go to a field
or see a patient, I am an anthropologist first and a doctor second; I appreciate
learning about cultures, and it has made me a better doctor.”
This question and Farmer’s answer sparked in my mind
again when I read the D. D. Mara’s article “Water, sanitation and hygiene for
the health of developing nations” for this next week. In it the author writes, “Rural water supply
and sanitation is essentially simple engineering but much less simple
sociology, and there needs to be a good and sustained programme of hygiene
education so that people with an improved water supply and improved sanitation
know how to use them to maximize the benefits to their health” (p. 454).
So clearly this week has really got me thinking about how
critical the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, etc.) are to the medical
sciences. I do not think I could be a
nurse without taking the anthropology, public health, and ethics courses that I
did and continue to take. Like Farmer
said, I think a lot more credit or emphasis needs to be given to these courses
and this type of human science. I know a
lot of students who have not taken courses like these but want to work in the
field of medicine. What do you all
think? Should health professional
students be required to take social sciences courses? How critical is it to medicine?
Lisa, so jealous that you got to go see Paul Farmer! It was a busy work for me or I would've loved to join.
ReplyDeleteI think your title of this post is so clever and fitting! Part of what I enjoy so much about the MPH program so far is that it seems to live up to the name of its college, Health AND Human sciences. As an anthropology minor (wishing lately that it had been my major...), at this point in my education I feel my anthropology (and culture-focused public health) classes have contributed more to my preparedness to practice medicine than most of my science classes. In fact, it was an anthropology class (Dr. Veile's Anthropology of Pregnancy, Birth, and Babies) that awakened me to some pressing social issues in the practice of obstetrics today that have driven me to find a passion in women's health issues and the plan to pursue a career as an OBGYN.
On the bright side, I think the medical system in the U.S. is starting to see more value in social sciences as well. The new MCAT has an expanded section on sociology, psychology, and behavioral sciences, and I have actually come across discussions of health disparities, socioeconomic status, and self-efficacy in my prep books for the exam. Still, only one premed psych and soc class each is required. Studying social sciences takes quite a bit longer than that! It takes a while for someone with little exposure to this manner of thinking to adopt the open-mindedness and cultural competence that this kind of study inspires. Personally I have felt my perspective shift with each social science course I've taken, each book I've read, each talk I've attended, etc. While the hard sciences of bio, chem, and physics are obviously a vast discipline, it hardly compares to the rich diversity of narratives and examples and applications that come through when studying the social sciences. However, though it is the case with the hard sciences, mastery and memorization is not the point of the social sciences. It is a mindset. It is a way of being able to approach a situation and, whether you've seen or heard of anything like it before, interpret it with nuance and respect. It is cultivated over a lifetime rather than learned in discrete courses.
That said, where else is there to start than working more of these courses or MPH-like programs into the study plan of pre-health professionals? Perhaps this will encourage the necessary continuous reflection on the effect that social constraints, cultural influences, and behavior patterns have on one's health.
Lisa, I am glad that you had such an amazing opportunity! Now that I know about Dr. Farmer, I see his name everywhere. His words seem to be a perfect example of what a doctor, especially one dealing with international health, should be. Your post this week did a wonderful job of combining last week’s readings and this week’s readings. I believe we need to continue to encourage (if not require) future medical professionals to take those anthropology and ethics classes. I also believe psychology classes should be included in the curriculums. I learned a lot of my compassion and understanding from those classes I took in undergrad.
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