Medical Students

The Edward D. Viner Center for Humanism has designed a comprehensive curriculum that is woven into undergraduate medical education. CMSRU students engage with Center faculty through:

First and second year students take Selectives that encourage their development as holistic thinkers and people. The courses span a range of humanistic fields, including the arts, biomedical ethics, social determinants of health, psycho-social well-being, narrative medicine, climate health, and history. They are designed to enhance problem solving skills, creativity, reflection, and encourage curiosity.

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All phase 1 students take this expanded “doctoring” course that facilitates students’ development of clinical and communication skills.

A required component of all block courses for all first and second-year students, ALGs use case scenarios that routinely integrate discussions of social determinants of health, ethical, and legal issues in addition to biomedical topics.

This small group seminar course for all third year students creates safe spaces to reflect on the clerkship experiences, discuss what it means to become a doctor, and explore the complexities of professional development.

Center faculty direct CMSRU students who elect to develop additional expertise in fields including Biomedical Ethics; Climate Medicine; JEDAI: Social Justice, Equity, Diversity, Anti-racism/Advocacy, and Inclusion; Medical Education; and Medical Humanities/Narrative Medicine; and Leadership.

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This third-year elective course builds a genuine community of inquiry between students and physicians by encouraging an in-depth sharing of experience, beliefs, aspirations, and personal truths. Students and faculty participate together in a discovery model that transcends the divisiveness of expertise to explore service as a way of life.