Course Offerings

CARE 1 & 2 (Compassionate Action and Real Engagement in the community)

This core course for first- and second-year medical students provides learners with skills to sustain a humanistic approach to medicine. Our evidence-based curriculum includes 1) classroom sessions with didactics, contemplative practice, small group activities, processing and reflection, 2) clinical observerships, and 3) community-based service. The three-course elements are integrated via homework assignments and discussions about the role of empathy, compassion, and self-compassion in professional life, health care, and society.

Compassionatomy

In our humanistic anatomy labs, we offer compassion training (10-15 minutes) at each, including a combination of contemplative practices (e.g., tracking, gratitude ritual, or offering of letters written to the donor and letter burning ceremony) to improve students’ learning from the body donor - their first patient.

PSY296: Compassionate Arts- and Humanities - Based Peer Facilitation

Ready to take skills you learned in CARE to the next level? In this course, experience and learn how to peer facilitate music-based, Narrative Medicine-based, and theater-based curricula. Then, practice these techniques by peer facilitating small groups for 3 Fall CARE1 sessions. Gain RE credits and help guide your near peers while honing arts- and humanities-based strategies for compassionate connection that you can bring to clinical and educational settings in the future.