PHRONESIS PROJECT
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Social Issues in Medicine
Phronesis 2021
Phronesis students are not required to participate in community setting placements or the SIM service project. You will learn about the role of community programs through your advocacy work with your patients and their families as well as a service project at your clinic sites (more on this at orientation). However, you are required to attend SIM classroom activities (content sessions and panel presentations) and submit the SIM reflective writing assignments that have been modified for Phronesians. Please visit the Social Issues in Medicine web site for more information.
SIM Course Goals
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To provide 1st year medical students with an introduction to the social issues in medicine and the societal context in which medicine is practiced.
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To introduce students to key aspects of medical professionalism and humanism.
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To encourage students to develop the skill of reflection and become more self aware of their strengths and interests, and their weaknesses and limitations.
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To foster the development of partnerships between the University and the community so that students may learn about actual community needs and services, and, through community service, increase the capacity of local service providers to meet the needs of their clients.
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To encourage students to develop an ethic of service.
Past Reflective Writing Assignments for Phronesis Students
Questions to guide Phronesis Students’ Social Issues in Medicine Reflection Essays
Mid-semester Reflection – Due Feb 19, 2016
1. What goals have you set with respect to your patients regarding their use of community resources to either improve their access to care or use the health care/treatment plan prescribed for them?
What goals have you set for yourself to expand your understanding of the interface between the social service and health care systems?
2. Consider the SIM morning Content Sessions and describe some of the challenges your patients face? For each of your patients, describe (or speculate) how these circumstances may affect their access to medical care and/or ability to be healthy. Reflect on how age, income, geographical location, culture and other social circumstances impact the health of your patients.
3. Describe an experience or interaction with your patients that has been either meaningful/satisfying or challenging/frustrating. How can you learn from this experience to develop a humanistic or professional practice of medicine?
4. Discuss any insights you are gaining from SIM activities so far (e.g. physician-student panel, SIM morning Content Sessions, outside lectures, your growing awareness of social issues that impact your patients and the practice of medicine, etc.)
5. Discuss any insights you have had regarding yourself, e.g. your interests, your knowledge about human behavior, your strengths and weaknesses, your stereotypes or prejudices.
Final Reflection – Due April 18, 2016
6. What qualities comprise your notion of a humanistic and professional practitioner of medicine? Who exemplifies these qualities? (You do not have to provide his/her name.) Which qualities would you anticipate to be most challenging for you personally to incorporate as a medical student? as a future physician?
7. Describe an additional experience or interaction that you have had with your patients that has been either meaningful or satisfying, or challenging or frustrating, and why it was so. How can you learn from this experience?
8. What challenges are you encountering as a medical student in sustaining or nurturing an ethic of service? Describe steps you can take to actively nurture an ethic of service during medical school and beyond.
9. Discuss one of the learning or service goals you outlined for one of your patients, and the extent to which you were able to achieve it.
10. Describe any connections you made between the SIM morning Content Sessions and/or SIM discussions in your CPD group, and your experiences with your patients in helping them access community services or health care. OR Select a social issue (or issues) that impacts one of your patients, and discuss how you, as a physician, would best respond to patients affected by these circumstances. Do you see gaps in services? How would you try to address these gaps?
11. Describe how you have achieved or are engaged with one of the course goals.