Course description
Medicine is a global profession framed by forces going beyond national boundaries, such as food insecurity, human migration, climate change and conflict. It follows that medical education needs to keep pace with these changes and to ensure the next generation of doctors are aware of global issues, regardless of whether they choose to work in the UK or overseas. This awareness improves their critical thinking, enables them to empathise more with patients from diverse backgrounds, and strengthens their ability to understand the challenges faced by different types of health systems – and not just the NHS. Global health covers issues of health and healthcare across the world, and not just in developing countries.
This module on Global Health and Humanities (GHH) represents the first of several initiatives planned at University of Aberdeen to enable medical students to graduate with this awareness. Global health involves diverse disciplines including humanities, social sciences and the arts. Beginning the integration of global health into the curriculum through the Medical Humanities block is thus entirely appropriate. The module will use the humanities as a lens or perspective to examine different aspects of global health and is intended for those who have no prior exposure to these topics as well as those who have some experiences.
This course is capped at 16 students
Course Coordinators: Dr Ching-Wa Chung, ching-wa.chung@abdn.ac.uk