"A life in medicine": stories from a Dartmouth Medical School elective

The authors describe the content and pedagogy of "A Life in Medicine," an elective for fourth-year students at the Dartmouth Medical School. After briefly describing the rationale behind the course, the authors outline its basic structure and how they teach it (setting, class assignments, etc.). Incorporated in the text are brief descriptions of the reading and writing assignments and examples of students' responses, both verbal and written, to these assignments. Finally, they detail the strong reactions of one set of students to their reading of A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong and Sheryl Feldman and how the students handled their feelings of anger toward Armstrong's criticism of physicians. This classroom experience highlights the power and potential value of offering medical students a place to reflect on their education and what it means to live "a life in medicine."