The Biomedical Humanities program: merging humanities and science in a premedical curriculum at Hiram College

The Biomedical Humanities program at Hiram College, established in 1999, engages premedical and other qualified students in ethical and informed decision making, improves their ability to interact with persons of different backgrounds and cultures, provides them an active introduction to basic medical research and clinical practice, and coaches them in communicating across barriers, appreciating that scientists and humanists typically learn and work differently. The program offers both a major and a minor in biomedical humanities topics. The major requires the core biology and chemistry curriculum necessary for further studies in medicine as well as courses in genetics and statistics. The remainder of the major is devoted to four core areas: Communications, Relationships and Cultural Sensitivity, Ethics and Medical Humanities, and a nonacademic core area, Experiential Learning. Many of the ethics and medical humanities options are team-taught interdisciplinary courses. The Experiential Learning area requires students to take two special topics seminars, two service seminars, and two internships-one shadowing a professional in his or her area of interest and one engaging in basic biomedical research. The shadowing internship and service seminars focus not only on career exploration, but also on human interactions. Students reflect on the personal interactions they observe during their various experiences, and on their own strengths and weaknesses. Essays, designed to help students learn more about their roles in these settings, push them to deal with the sociopolitical issues involved in their service. The major, a robust and vital component of Hiram's undergraduate program, has attracted academically gifted students with a diverse array of career goals.