By Cesia Garcia Menjivar
Ethics, history and culture are crucial for those heading into health care fields, says Dr. Jason Prystowsky, a UC Santa Barbara alumnus who is heading up the university’s newly-launched Medical Humanities Certificate program.
Prystowsky is am emergency physician at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and medical director at Santa Barbara City Fire Department. He is the coordinator and lead lecturer for the new certificate program, which is a collaboration between the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts and UCSB Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE) a as well as the Walter H. Capps Center for Religion, Ethics and Public Life.
Dr. Prystowsky also co-chairs the ethics committee at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and is medical director for Doctors Without Walls - Santa Barbara Street Medicine, a local non-profit that provides free medical care to the homeless and working poor in Santa Barbara County.
He recently sat down for an interview to discuss the rationale for the new certificate, which started this fall..
Q. What is the aim of a medical humanities education?
A. To use narrative, literature, film, theater as tools to teach empathy and understand the human mind, enhancing the doctor patient relationship. To look at social medicine and how poverty, ethnicity, and gender identity all play into health outcomes.
Q. How important are history and ethics in a health care career?
A. We talk about the history of medicine and the darker side of the structural violence and racism that's built into our healthcare system. Too many doctors are very skilled in medical procedures and operating but they are not skillful in having discussions that involve the language of medical ethics and how different cultures look at health and life.
Q.What is the process to enter the program?
A. As of now, the only requirements are to earn no less than a “C” in any particular course and have a minimum of 16 units. The program is targeting students who are STEM majors so that it can expose them to the humanities, but any student can take it. You can complete it within one year, but certainly take as much time as you need to. It's really designed to complement the education of UCSB students who are interested in the career of healthcare.
Q. Can you give us a brief explanation of what the program will consist of?
A. I coordinate the two required classes and the bulk of the teaching is done by experts in different fields of humanities. One required course, taught in the fall, is an Introduction to Humanities, and the second one, taught in the spring, is called Medical Humanities in the World. There's also a list on the HFA website of the different electives you can take to fulfill the requirement. Students who complete the certificate are eligible for an internship geared towards the public health community and the interdisciplinary world of humanities.
Q. How will the Medical Humanities Certificate help students be more qualified for medical school?
A. If you're looking at our current healthcare structure, the absence of the humanities is very palpable. Medical schools should be asking applicants to have a more broad background in the humanities.
Q. Would it be valuable for students to take the medical humanities program if they are not interested in going into healthcare?
A. I would like to think so because even if people are not into healthcare, the reality is that at some point they are going to access healthcare as a patient or as a family member of a patient, so it's going to be valuable. It's not what we created it for but it would still be valuable.
Cesia Garcia Menjivar is a third year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Global Studies and Minoring in Spanish. She is pursuing the Professional Writing Minor.