Course Catalog

 
STP2031 MOVIES, MEDICINE, AND MORE! EXPERIENCES IN PALLIATIVE CARE
Department MEDICINE Campus Birmingham
Course Type(s) Special Topic Facility UAB Medical Center
Course Director HESHAM HASSAN, MD Enrollment Limit 8
Contact HESHAM HASSAN, MD Enrollment Minimum 3
Email hahassan@uabmc.edu Address
Birmingham, AL
Phone (205) 975-8933 Fax
Weeks
Normally Offered
See Offering Dates		 17-17, 44-44
Prerequisites Completion of first year of medical school. 
Specific Clerkship Prerequisites:
Visiting Students
No LCME students accepted.
No osteopathic students accepted.
Course Description Welcome to the world of Palliative Care - the specialty of medicine that helps patients and loved ones live as well as possible in spite of having a serious illness. We help patients and families focus on what is most important and meaningful, and in our team-based model of care we provide relief of physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and social suffering. Unfortunately, some of our patients often have life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses, and caring for these patients poses a unique challenge to the provider due to the emotions we face when our patients have a serious illness. This special topics course combines broad humanistic and clinical experiences to achieve the following objectives: - gain primary Palliative Care skills (such as addressing emotion) useful for alleviating suffering in all patients, particularly those with serious illness - differentiate Palliative Care from Hospice - grow confidence in employing wellness practices through narrative medicine, movie viewing and discussion, patient interaction, and interdisciplinary education - foster reflective practice patterns in consideration of medical humanities (what it means to be a human in the context of health and healthcare).
Where To Report Meet Monday morning on UAB’s Palliative & Comfort Care Unit (PCCU, UAB Center for Psychiatric Medicine Bldg., 3rd FL, 205-996-6870). Each day will vary clinical and didactic experiences ranging from 8am-2pm depending on participants and interests. We’ll email prior to the course to determine areas of interest/schedules. Clinical sites can include UAB, VA, and Children's of Alabama.
Requirements Participate in all learning activities (including group discussion, clinical experiences, movie screenings, narrative medicine sessions, etc.)
Evaluation Pass / Fail based on attendance and participation
Notes Reach out to the course director via email (or work cell phone number operational during business hours) with questions. Our goal is to make this an enjoyable, uplifting, exciting, and unique learning opportunity to introduce Palliative Care and medical humanities concepts to medical students.