The humanities
tell us about
our lives, our
cultures, and
our societies.
They provide the
traditions,
interpretations,
and visions that
define our
existence and
shape our future.
Sheryl Crutchfield
The MABMH program was my way of working through my mid-life crisis!
The coursework provided a stimulating and informative foundation that allowed me to venture into the bioethics community with confidence and professionalism. The internship/independent study vehicle of the program was instrumental in my personal and academic growth.
I interned with Suncoast Hospice, taking advantage of the variety of training the organization provides in energy healing, patient care, ethics, spiritual counseling, and transition companionship. My affiliation with Suncoast Hospice has led to ongoing participation in its Ethics Board and Ethics Roundtables. I have given presentations to the Ethics Board regarding artificial nutrition/hydration and euthanasia/physician assisted suicide/palliative sedation. I also served on the Institutional Review Board at
My next adventure is to pursue the PhD in Aging Studies offered right here at USF. I am excited about the continuing journey and grateful for the opportunities and mentorship that the MABMH program created for me. Mid-life crisis resolution!
David Yokum
David, past recipient of the prestigious McWane Scholarship from his alma mater Birmingham-Southern College, entered the Bioethics and Medical Humanities program in the fall of 2007. Originally a native of Monroe, LA, David has lived throughout several southern states before finally being attracted to Tampa. In his own words, "Of all the graduate programs I considered, the MABMH was unique in its flexibility and extensive opportunities. It is possible to enroll in relevant courses at any graduate program at USF – not only the medical school – and professors continuously encourage and assist with independent research and internships."
David's academic interests emerged from his undergraduate liberal arts education and studies in biology. As he explains, "I quickly came to realize that science is not restricted to the neutral findings of empirical research, but has consequences that infiltrate virtually every aspect of life. Whether we are deciding how to use a certain technology or considering what a particular discovery means for our understanding of life, science has to reach out to sources such as philosophy, history, cultural beliefs, and other fields within the humanities. Understanding this dynamic is not only important, but endlessly fascinating."
Along with his core coursework, David is currently engaged in an Internship with the Tampa General Hospital Ethics Committee, where he participates in regular meetings and is also investigating the more broad aspects of how an ethics committee functions. David described his experience as follows: "Bioethics, because it involves real people with immediate dilemmas, cannot afford the luxury of pondering about overly abstract ideas for long periods of time – you have to make timely decisions despite the difficulty and ambiguity. Participating on an actual ethics committee has really made this point apparent, and continuously forces me to refine my opinions and ideas in relation to the realities of real life. This internship really drives home the practical importance of an education in bioethics and medical humanities."
Upon earning an MABMH, David will pursue a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience. Indeed, much of his desire to study ethics and humanities derived from this overarching ambition. "Cognitive neuroscience," he said, "is a field of science that, at the end of the day, is intimately related to our humanity. By investigating how and why the mind works as it does, we are essentially investigating our very personhood – how we think about the world, why we believe certain things, and so on. I can't imagine studying this topic without also considering the broader implications encompassed within the spheres of ethics and humanities."
My name is Summer Decker and I come to USF's program in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. As an anthropologist with a focus in medicine and biology, I was attracted to this program because of its interdisciplinary approach. In the program, my focus was medical ethics and law. I loved that I was able to select classes that complemented my MA in Anthropology, while giving me a strong foundation in the legal and ethical principles that arise in medicine and medical research.
In the MABMH program, I had the unique opportunity to study with a wide variety of faculty from many different backgrounds. I felt that this gave me real world experience on how to listen, understand and be open to people's opinions and perspectives that differ from mine. This is much like what it would be on an institutional ethics committee in a hospital, university, etc. I believe that listening to others and really hearing their "stories", be it patients, clients, or colleagues, are critical skills that many people lack. This program tries to instill those skills in their students. These tools will serve us well no matter where our career path takes us.
For my independent study, I chose to focus on the history of programs in Bioethics and Medical Humanities and review the current programs. It is important to see how far we have come, in order to better ourselves in the future. USF's MABMH program is definitely a field leader. As the first graduate program of it's kind in the state of Florida and one of the few in the world, we have really set the bar high. Our innovative curriculum, carefully designed by our faculty, gives us core courses from many different departments and colleges on campus such as Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Religion, and Anthropology to name a few.
The wonderful courses that I took and the faculty contacts I made in the MABMH program allowed me tremendous opportunities that I would have never gotten had I not come to this program. I am pleased to say that I recently accepted a position in USF College of Medicine's Ph.D. Program in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences (PPIBS) with a medical research assistantship. I will be able to apply the knowledge and skills that I learned about medical research in the MABMH program to my new research and academic track.
My independent study project is an overview of hospice and palliative care. Hospice has become a very important concept for those facing life-limiting illness. The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about hospice, its importance, and its progression through the years. LifePath Hospice & Palliative Care gave me the opportunity to shadow several hospice team members and meet patients in order to better understand this special concept of care.
This study focused on several areas of hospice and palliative care:
· Purpose of hospice- defining the concept, goal of hospice care, benefits
· Palliative care- defining the term
· Historical perspective of hospice- tracing back to 1967
· Levels of care- types of care offered to patients
· Services provided
· Skilled staff members- physicians, nurses, social workers, pastors, etc.
· Hospice participation/Plan of Action- steps taken to join hospice care
· Internship experiences
· Circle of Life Award- honors innovative programs in palliative or end-of-life care
· Future of Hospice
Trends indicate that as more patients and families are educated about its many benefits, hospice is becoming an appealing alternative to facing death in a clinical setting (Hospice of America Association, 2006). Hospice is about honoring patients' wishes before death. Hospice gives so many people the opportunity to die with dignity. This was an amazing experience. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to gain the knowledge and understand the importance of this concept of care through this independent study.
My independent study at a hospice influenced me to pursue a doctorate in aging studies. Following patient’s aging process made me passionate about wanting to understand the complexities of aging. I am interested in several areas of aging studies, particularly end-of-life issues, hospice and palliative care, futile care and “international aging” that compares health care systems. In Fall 2007, I will be attending the University of North Texas’s Ph.D. program in Applied Gerontology with an academic achievement scholarship. My future goal is to utilize the knowledge gained from the MABMH program and the Applied Gerontology program to improve the lives of elderly people.
The second film, I Accuse or Ich Klage An, is a 1941 German propaganda film, currently outlawed in Germany, that advocates adult euthanasia. Because it has never been translated into English, I have worked with USF World Language Department Professor Dr. Stefan Huber and student Paul Legato to produce a translation of the film. The next step is to have the film professionally subtitled and then premiered.
The third film is a 1972 Johns Hopkins documentary showing infanticide-by-inattention of a Down's infant with a correctable defect in their hospital. It is entitled Who Should Survive?. This film comes fifty-six years after The Black Stork and ten years before the first landmark Baby Doe case in 1982.
My independent study focuses on three specific areas of the Terri Schiavo case:
1. an analysis of the case in terms of the medical facts, patient preferences, quality of life, and contextual features. Analysis of the issues in each area serves to clarify the medical, familial, religious, legal and political conflicts that resulted in public controversies;
2. an investigation of how philosophical foundations, bioethical frameworks, and ethical deliberation facilitate identification of the key ethical questions pertinent to the case;
3. and, most importantly, the suggestion that the primary lesson learned from the Schiavo case centers on the importance of advance care planning for health care decision-making. This lesson has direct relevance to oncology settings where advance care planning should be institutionalized as a best practice. Advance care planning, as a professional norm, can help to differentiate the overriding goals of care from specific treatment options, and may serve to alleviate confusion, conflict and suffering for many oncology patients at the end of life.
I have just completed an Independent Study project titled: The Human Body, Medicine and Culture in Renaissance Italy. The final project is a presentation/lecture with 40 power point slides. This project was a labor of love. The history of medicine is a vast subject, and as I visited Italy this fall, it seemed perfect to narrow the topic to a time frame that celebrates the sprit of discovery, science and the human body.
The project explored the following learning objectives:
· To identify the influence of cultural change on medicine and art during the Renaissance.
· To identify events that demonstrate the Renaissance spirit of inquiry and "new science".
· To identify contributions of renowned artists and physicians of this era.
The goal of my independent study is to research, affect, and describe the process of creating law to establish the "Florida Better Quality of Life and Biomedical Research Act." The objective of this legislative initiative is to foster medically ethical embryonic and human adult stem cell research in Florida through the creation of a new Florida statute.
This legislation (HB 233 by Representative Franklin Sands and SB 468 by Senator Ron Klein) also creates the Biomedical Research Advisory Council to promote the advancement of embryonic and human adult stem cell research, and the Biomedical Research and Ethics Oversight Council as a separate stem cell research institutional review board (IRB). However, this IRB is not created per federal regulation, hence will only act as an additional IRB under the state Department of Health.
I will research the current situation of embryonic and adult stem cell search in Florida
and the nation and provide background information, legislative findings, legislative proposals, funding issues, definitions, and the estimated fiscal impact.
I will track and monitor the legislation, interview legislators, interview committee staff, and demonstrate how an idea becomes a law.
I am a registered lobbyist in the State of Florida and this proposed legislation may not become law during the timeframe of this course or the 2006 Regular Session of the Legislature.
My independent study project is an overview of pediatric palliative care in the United States.
My goals are to:
1. Explore the patterns of childhood death in the United States including the top causes of death by age group and where children are dying (at home versus in the hospital).
2. Discuss the precepts of pediatric palliative care.
3. Provide an overview of the spiritual development of children.
4. Explore cultural considerations for pediatric palliative care.
5. Examine ethical concerns related to pediatric palliative care.
6. Compile a list of resources (e.g. websites, literature) for families and professionals.
A version of this project will be published as an appendix to Mobsy's Pediatric Nursing Reference (6th edition) Betz & Sowden (eds.).
In the MABMH program, I focused on women's health, the self, and philosophy of science. I was drawn to USF's program because of its interdisciplinary nature, which allowed me to design my program according to my interests, career, and vision. A definite plus!
My independent research has centered on the ethics of the elective primary Cesarean Section (EPCS), a procedure that occurs when a woman with no history of C-section and no medical indication chooses the surgery. The project design is as follows:
1. outline the history of obstetrics and midwifery,
2. review the medical literature on EPCS,
3. present socio-biological themes of popular and medical literature that may influence a woman's decision for EPCS,
4. argue for an alternative definition of Autonomy based on a concept I term body-trust, derived from Albert Bandura, Trudy Govier, and Mabel E. Todd,
5. show that women who choose EPCS may lack body-trust,
6. contend that EPCS is unethical in these cases.
7. Propose a scientifically-based intervention -- movement -- to increase body-trust in women.
Currently, I'm a Research Associate for the Women's Health Fitness Institute (WHFI), a Yale-affiliated nonprofit dedicated to using women-centered movement activities to foster women's health through the lifecycle. We conduct cutting-edge biomedical research world-wide, which spans disciplines and has the potential to benefit women and their families. I believe women-centered health fitness is part of optimal healthcare for women, and I intend to advocate for its inclusion in healthcare as a way for improving the lives of women, their offspring, families, and communities. I am pleased to announce that I have been accepted as a scholarship student at Columbia University where I will pursue a Masters degree in Nurse-Midwifery and PhD in Public Health.