Intercalated BA in Medical Humanities
What is the BA Medical Humanities programme?
This programme is open to students already studying Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Sciences at Bristol, and students studying those subjects at other universities. It is a year-long intercalation, usually undertaken at the end of your second year (but it can be at the end of your third or fourth year), at the end of which you transfer back to your home Faculty and/or university and pick up where you left off. For Bristol students, the degree builds on humanities exposure from the first two years of the MB ChB course, in particular the Human Basis of Medicine and Whole Person Care.
This programme aims to develop the student's interest in and knowledge and understanding of the contribution of humanities to the accomplished practice of medicine and medical research. Grounded in the disciplines of English Literature, Philosophy and History, the curriculum aims to show how the humanities can illuminate the context in which medicine and medical research are practiced. It aims to impart some of the knowledge and skills of literary and philosophical analysis and apply these to a broadened conceptualisation of the suffering individual, their medical care and carers, and the historical and epistemological basis on which that care is delivered. In addition to two core units specifically related to the medical humanities, students do a more general unit in each discipline. This gives them ample opportunity to learn from and with fellow students in the Arts Faculty. In a dissertation unit they will be required to explore a particular aspect of the medical humanities theme and demonstrate advanced research and writing skills. The programme seeks to fulfil the General Medical Council's recommendations for a curriculum that is "intellectually challenging", with time for "reflection and personal growth" leading to an "understanding of the social and cultural environment in which medicine is practiced" and an ability to "critically evaluate evidence". The global aim is to produce better doctors - emotionally and cognitively intelligent, culturally aware and philosophically enquiring.
Why humanities and medicine?
Medicine is a fascinating and challenging undertaking, marking a turbulent intersection between humanistic and scientific understandings of life. The advances in medical science, particularly in the last 150 years, have been extraordinary. These are reflected in a medical curriculum overflowing with basic and clinical science. However this success must not blind us to the wider view. What about, for instance, the personal dimension, which becomes so apparent when we, or our loved ones, become ill? Medical technologies are applied to ailing individuals for whom both their illness and its treatment is highly meaningful. We can also wonder about the nature of clinical science itself and the way it constructs knowledge about the medical universe. The medical humanities, as a disciplinary field, offers one route into this more mature understanding of illness and the scientific basis of its alleviation. It draws on a wide range of academic disciplines that have sought to portray and question the nature of medicine. Its principal fields are literature, philosophy, socioanthropology and history, to which many others could potentially be added. Their study provides a healthy complement to the standard scientific and clinical curriculum.
Oakhill Group
During TB1 and TB2 a study group will be run every two weeks solely for intercalating students from MB ChB or equivalent programmes. These tutorials will be facilitated by staff from the Department of Community Based Medicine. The purpose of the group is to a) support students in relation to the main units and help them own and integrate their learning b) help forge links between the medical humanities and clinical medicine and c) provide a safe forum for students' personal and artistic development. The work of the group is informal and will not be formally assessed. Student's will be encouraged to keep a portfolio of their work, and to keep a written record of their own progress. This will contribute to both to self and peer, assessment and feedback.
Introducing the Units
In the Arts Faculty, teaching is organised in two twelve-week teaching blocks.
Teaching Block 1
| Unit | Format | Credit Points | Assessment |
| Philosophy of Science (compulsory) | Weekly lecture + Weekly seminar |
20 | 3hr end of yr exam |
| Choice of Critical Issues (in English Literature) or Approaches to Poetry | Weekly seminar (crit issues) or weekly seminar + x3 lectures/week (poetry) | 20 | 3500 word essay (critical issues) or 3000 word essay (poetry). Formative essays also set. |
Teaching Block 2
| Unit | Format | Credit Points | Assessment |
| Literature & Medicine (compulsory) | Weekly seminar | 20 | 2,000 word short & 4,000 word long essay |
| Philosophy and History of Medicine (compulsory) | Weekly lecture + Weekly seminar |
20 | Open book exam |
| Dissertation (compulsory) | Self study + supervision | 40 | 6,500-8,000 word essay |
Philosophy and History of Medicine
This unit surveys the “making” of modern medicine from the French Revolution to the AIDS pandemic. It explores some of the key epistemological frameworks of our medical world in their socio-historical context. It traces the creation in the nineteenth century of two new medical institutions, hospitals and laboratories, of new medical professionals working in them, and of new causal understandings of disease. Turning to the twentieth century, it then traces the formation of biomedicine and national health care systems, and examines the implications of efforts to standardize medical knowledge and practice through the clinical trial and evidence-based medicine. Throughout, the unit explores the tensions between the increasing objectification of medicine and the subjective dimensions of doctors’ knowledge and patients’ illness. Addressing the changing relationship between the doctor and patient, science and medicine, and concepts of health and disease, the unit critically assesses the nature and status of disease categories, medical expertise and medical knowledge. This unit is open to medical and philosophy students. If we establish a “Philosophy of Medicine” unit, this unit will become more purely historical.
Literature and Medicine
This unit will explore the interrelation between medicine and literature across a range of literary genres and historical periods. Drawing on this historical perspective, it will explore the changing literary representations of patients, illness and the medical profession. Topics will include: the body in literature; the complex interaction of literature and psychoanalysis; illness and the nature of artistic experience; Shakespeare and medicine; literary constructions of physical and mental illness; and illness as metaphor. Open to both English and Medical Students, the unit will expose students to the challenges of interdisciplinarity. The unit comprises a weekly two hour seminar underpinned by a wide range of textual and critical sources and is assessed by two essays of 2,000 and 4,000 words respectively.
English option 1 - Critical issues (in English Literature)
This unit introduces students to some central issues and debates in literary criticism and theory. These will be encountered in the context of the study of certain prescribed texts: four novels, and one play. By considering these texts in the light of designated topics, students will become acquainted with the guiding ideas (and, to an extent, with the specialized vocabularies) of some of the most influential schools of criticism and theory in the twentieth century, such as feminism, narratology, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, nationalism, and new-historicism. The unit comprises a weekly two hour seminar underpinned by a wide range of textual and critical sources and is assessed by two essays of 2,000 and 4,000 words respectively.
English option 2 - Approaches to Poetry
Approaches to Poetry provides an introduction to a wide range of English poetry from the Middle Ages to the present, and to some of the principal forms, styles and genres in which English verse has been written, including various comic, elegiac, epic and mock epic, erotic, lyric, pastoral and satiric forms. An introduction is provided to several common verse techniques, including enjambment, conceit, metaphor, repetition, and several forms of scansion. The Unit also introduces some critical problems relating to the reading and discussion of poetical texts, and to some general notions of the nature and function of poetic form. Subjects discussed include classical myth and English poetry, poetry and history, the figure of the poet, poetry and song, poetic translation and transmission, the place of women in poetry, poetry and painting, poetic inspiration, and poetic endings. The unit, while complete in itself, provides a foundation for further study of poetry. Particular attention will be given to scholarly standards of writing and presentation. The unit comprises a weekly two hour seminar underpinned by a wide range of textual and critical sources and is assessed by two essays of 2,500 words and an exam.
Philosophy of Natural and Social Science
What kinds of relations exist between theories? Can new theories explain the success of their predecessors? Is science progressing towards unification? What do we mean by the term 'probability'? What is the relationship between confirmation and explanation? Does the successful prediction of a hitherto unforeseen event provide more confirmation than the successful prediction of a well-known one? Can medicine be called a science? What do we mean by 'health' and 'disease'? What is the role and evidential import of randomised controlled trials? This unit is assessed by an open book exam at the end of the year.
Dissertation Unit
This dissertation unit, unique to iBAMH, is designed to allow students to demonstrate their ability to integrate their learning from the other units of the programme. Students write a dissertaton of 6,500 to 8,000 words (including quotations and notes, excluding bibliography) on a subject of their own choice, agreed by the Unit Director and a supervisor from the departments of English or Philosophy. The topic of the dissertation must include some aspect of the medical humanities and draw on learning in other units in the programme. Depending on the topic, additional supervision from a clinician may be available. Students meet regularly with their supervisor(s), prepare plans of work, demonstrate abilities to search and assimilate information from a variety of sources and produce a well reasoned account in clear academic prose. Topics for dissertations in recent years have included: The Making of Schizophrenia from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day; Sleeplessness in Medicine and Literature from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day; Lovesickness in Literature and Biomedicine; The Royal Navy, Cholera and Quarantine in the Nineteenth Century; Death without God in Tennyson’s In Memoriam; Dracula in Literature and Medicine;Hippocrates: Fact or Fiction, Father or Fraud?; Nutrition and the Death Camps; Narrative Competence and its Lessons for the Clinic; The Physical and Metaphysical in Keats; A Discussion of the Importance of Medical Humanities in the Practice of Medicine.
Transferring to the Faculty of Arts
The learning culture of the Arts Faculty is different to that of the Medical Faculty. Though medics may joke about the easy life of the arts student, their overall workload is roughly equivalent. The big difference is that learning in the Arts Faculty is primarily self-directed and requires considerable independent reading. There is relatively little direct contact time with teaching staff. That said, lectures will be crucial to developing your understanding of this sometimes complex material. Seminars are small teaching groups. By comparison to medicine, a much higher level of preparedness is expected for Arts seminars and active participation is mandatory. We have specifically designed the programme to give the iBAMH a real sense of being part of the Arts Faculty and we also recognise the challenges that come with that shift. To support you we have put in the following:
1. The Oakhill Group. This is a forum in which you will have opportunity to integrate your learning and build bridges to your future clinical life. It is described in further detail below.
2. Introductory Seminars. The English units in TB1 are actually year one units and and therefore intrinscially introductory. For philosophy there will be either one or two introductory seminars in preparation for the Philosophy and History of Medicine core unit.
3. Integrated learning. By this we mean that you will be learning alongside arts students most of the time. All units (except the dissertation) are open to arts students. This is a unique feature of the Bristol iBAMH.
4. Introductory reading. You will be provided with a range of reading materials that you should address in the summer prior to starting the iBAMH. See below for details.
5. Academic support. Arts Faculty academics offer to read and give you feedback on your academic writing prior to formal submissions.
Making an application
General requirements to intercalate (in any subject)
Bristol students will need to obtain permission to intercalate and demonstrate that their marks are strong enough for them to leave medicine for a year. Non-Bristol students must seek approval from their Pre-Clinical or Clinical Deans before applying to Bristol, but we do not need written permission until an offer has been made.
Bristol students must apply to the the Centre for Medical Education using the generic intercalation application form. Once we have checked that you are eligible to intercalate, will we provide you with a special iBAMH application form by email. The application form should be submitted to Karen Copeland, Undergraduate Senior Student Administrator, (Karen.Copeland@bristol.ac.uk). The interview process will include a simulated seminar and a short interview. Both will be based on matters arising from your application and no presentations are expected. We would hope to be able to offer places before the end of the Bristol spring term.
Students from outside Bristol will be considered on an equal footing with Bristol students. Typically about 1/3 of students on the programme are from medical schools other than Bristol. Current students and graduates are available to talk about the programme.
Your first port of call for further information regarding the course should be either Karen Copeland, Undergraduate Senior Student Administrator, (Karen.Copeland@bristol.ac.uk) on administrative matters or Dr. Polly Wood for any other questions (polly.wood@bristol.ac.uk)
Pre-course Preparation
Successful applicants will receive help in preparation for the academic year. Various preparative reading materials will be suggested by the unit leaders. Some of this may be “required” so be prepared to do some reading in the long vacation.