Transforming Future Doctors Into Critical Thinkers: The Merits of an Inaugural Pre-Med Undergraduate Sociology Course

• In Event: 514 - Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Challenging Perceptions and Realities
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology Roundtables. Table 01. Challenging Perceptions and Realities

Abstract

Many educational initiatives for diversity and inclusion have been shown to run the risk of stereotyping; this is particularly the case in medical education, where a focus on differentiated identities results in the “Othering” of underrepresented groups. Undergraduate pre-medical education stands at a watershed moment for diversity and inclusion education. One of the integral components of the medical school application, the MCAT, will include sections on sociology in 2015. In anticipation of this change, many Sociology Departments may create a course for pre-med students, expressly designed to teach the fundamental concepts and critical thinking skills in sociology. In this paper, I give an overview of why this course is important by placing pre-medical education within the wider framework of medical education and practice. Then, I describe how the placement, content, and goals of this course will work towards overcoming the issues that plague the instruction of social scientific knowledge across educational, research, and clinical practices in biomedicine. At the most basic level, this course brings attention to the multiplicity and intersections of identities within the institution of higher education and the institution of medicine, moving toward both an inclusive and differentiated understanding of diversity at the level of lived – or imagined - experience. More deeply, this course develops students’ capacity for an advanced sociological imagination that is attuned to implementing patient care, research, and health care advocacy without stereotyping or Othering.

Author

• Lauren Olsen, University of California-San Diego