Topic outline

  • General

    • Alternative projects are your ideas; this is your opportunity to identify a topic of your own choosing to study in depth that considers Medicine and  Healthcare from an alternative perspective.  Purely Scientific /Medical projects will not be approved, otherwise there is no limit to the possibilities. 

      Where possible you should find a suitable person with appropriate expertise to supervise you and to assess your work academically. The Medical Humanities team may be able to help you find a suitable supervisor over the summer. Please see the Guide for Supervisors below which you might find useful to share with potential supervisors. It is not necessary to have this confirmed when submitting proposal however final approval is dependant on confirmed supervisor before making course choices in September.

      It is not necessary to do primary data collection and you should consider if this is necessary and alternative s should this not be possible. You should consider if your plans might need ethical approval, usually we advise against projects that do and you would need appropriate support to undertake ethical approval from your supervisor and this will need to be undertaken in advance. As part of the approval process you will need to discuss if there are any ethical considerations for your project.

      You should contact the SSC coordinator by email in the first instance with an outline of your proposal and then you will be asked to complete a proposal form (see below). You will need to have submitted your initial proposal by 29th May 2024by email to leeannebodkin@abdn.ac.uk 

      You will be invited to discuss your initial proposal at a meeting with the medical humanities team after submission and to revise proposal if necessary during the summer. We consider your proposal with you and if the project is feasible in terms of time involved, supervision and eventual outputs. The more preparatory research into the project you do the better chance it has of approval. Students may only undertake an 'alternative' project in Medical Humanities, with the approval of the Medical Humanities team. We will decide with you if it is to be worth 15 credits and agree equitable assessment.

      Timeline

      May - Proposal submission

      June - Approval Panel

      July - Follow up Actions from panel

      Aug - Confirm supervisor and approval

      Sept - Submit as first choice in course selection

      There are also opportunities to do projects with identified supervisors on the following;

      • History of the Highland Hospitals - Inverness based contact Professor Stephen Leslie stephen.leslie@nhs.scot 
      • Medical Anthropology
      • Technology and AI in healthcare
      • Film and medicine (visual culture)
      • Ancient Medicine
      • History of Neurosurgery
      • International Politics
      • Medical education
      • Narrative medicine

      Course Coordinator: Leeanne Bodkin leeannebodkin@abdn.ac.uk

  • What skills does this course develop?

    • The ability to work on your own initiative on a project of particular personal interest will allow you to develop:

      • A capacity for self reflection, self discovery and personal development
      • An openness to, and an interest in, life-long learning through directed and self-directed study
      • A capacity for independent, conceptual and creative thinking;
      • A capacity for problem identification, the collection of evidence, synthesis and dispassionate analysis
      • An ability to participate in the creation of new knowledge and understanding through research and inquiry
      • An intellectual curiosity and a willingness to question accepted wisdom and to be open to new ideas

  • What will the timetable be like?

    • Guidance is provided on a bespoke basis, a course guide may be created but a schedule of work will be agreed between the student and supervisor.

      A 30 credit course entails 300 notional hours of effort (this must be completed within six weeks). The Medical Humanities Alternative Project may be a 15 credit or 30 credit course depending on the time the project will require to complete. 

  • How will I be assessed?

    • Assessment for each project will be agreed as part of the approval process but is likely to be either 1 or 2 components;

      5000 word written submission (format dependant on discipline essay/report) (100%)

      OR

      3500 word written submission (format dependant on discipline essay/report) (80%) AND 1500 word reflective essay or Oral Presentation (20%)


  • Anything else I should consider?

    • Students who undertake an alternative project will find they are working very much on their own and very often without much contact with the rest of the student body. Self-discipline and independence of mind are very much prerequisites for this. Travel and other costs will be determined by whatever project is undertaken.

  • What kind of projects have previous students done?

    • Alternative Projects undertaken in recent years include:

      Music composition as a means to explore patients cancer journey - Read John's Blog

      https://www.abdn.ac.uk/smmsn/blog/exploring-the-cancer-patients-perspective-through-composition/

      Social, cultural and psychological aspects of menstruation

      Origins and Development of Hospitals in the Western Isles

      Tackling antimicrobial resistance in the developing world

      Widening participation: socioeconomic inequalities in medical education UK

      Food and Nutrition: contributory factors to health and food as medicine

      Barriers to Mental Health within the South Asian Community

      Scottish justifications for physician-assisted suicide

      Exploring the ethos and design of cancer wellness centres

      Impact of breaking bad news on healthcare workers health and wellbeing

      The use of equine-assisted psychotherapy in current medicine

      Mountain Rescue teams in Highland: influence on uptake of outdoor activities

      Virtual reality simulations in medical education

      Are traditional medicines the solution to 'too much' medicine?

       


  • What do previous students think about doing an alternative

    • Student view 21-22



      'Chance to do something I wanted to do and develop skills for the future'

      'The opportunity to explore a completely different subject to Medicine'

      Really enjoyed it, has opened up new area of learning and thinking for me that has further influenced the direction I would like to take with my career.'

      'I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to explore an area of interest over this time period.'

      'I loved that I was able to pick my own topic, and I found it very enjoyable and rewarding to study.'

      'I choose to do an alternative project because I wanted to do something that was a bit different and that challenged me. I was initially concerned that the workload would be greater than other choices, but this isn’t the case. The majority of the work I found came at the beginning in finding supervisors, deciding the question/ area to study and organising a schedule.

      The only downside to doing an alternative project I found was that in the beginning you can feel a litte lost as everyone else has designated teaching time and you don’t, but the humanities course coordinators are always around for help. My only advice would be to choose specific area/question to study and to make sure there are sufficient journal articles to base your paper on.

      All in all I would definitely recommend doing an alternative project, as it is your chance to do something completely different as part of your degree, and make contacts with people in an area of medicine that interests you.

      student view 17-18




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