Duke's sociology department will offer pre-health students a more holistic understanding of medical practice through its new minor in medical sociology.
The minor was unveiled earlier this month and is designed to view medicine from patient and societal perspectives. As a supplement to the rigorous scientific pre-health curriculum, the department hopes the minor will help potential medical students understand issues such as health care access and disease prevalence.
“There is this group of people in health care called 'patients' that we sometimes forget to prepare pre-meds for,” said Deborah Gold, associate professor of medical sociology. “We forget to prepare them to understand their patients’ position in society and to relate to their patients.”
Although the medical sociology minor has been in development for a while, the inclusion of sociology questions on the new MCAT exam convinced the department that this was an opportune time to introduce it, said Rebecca Bach, director of undergraduate studies and associate professor of the practice in sociology.
Demand for the department's existing medical electives has increased steadily in recent years. The addition of the minor allows students already taking these electives to be formally recognized for their work, Bach said.
Sociology professor Linda George noted that the increased interest in undergraduate medical sociology classes comes at a time when sociology courses are increasingly being taught at medical schools around the country. These classes are, however, still voluntary in most medical schools.
George said the minor will help pre-meds avoid the narrow understanding of health care often found among medical professionals.
“Very few positions know very much about the distribution of illness in society,” she said. “They know what they see, where they practice, but they don’t see representative samples of the United States population.”
Many of the classes that will count toward the minor, such as Medical Sociology, Death and Dying and Aging and Health, involve service-learning components—an aspect which Gold said gives the department an opportunity to support the community. Service-learning requirements for one of these classes typically entail 20 hours of volunteering at a health care facility in Durham.
Gold noted that Death and Dying and Aging and Health, two of the courses she teaches, are particularly important for aspiring pre-meds because they expose students to the realities of old-age care and prepare students to actually interact with dying patients—things that are often missed in the “age-segregated” University.
She said the minor differs from the global health major in that it focuses on health care in the United States. The minor also emphasizes the role of the individual patient within the broader medical apparatus.
Bach added that the curriculum is still evolving and that two new classes—one on mental health and one on immigration and health—will be made available in the Spring.
Although the department initially designed the minor for pre-meds looking to expand their medical horizons, Gold emphasized that it has great utility for all Duke students.
“It really is a push by the sociology department to meet the needs of students who may not feel that chemistry and physics and biology are of interest to them, but still really want to understand these issues,” Gold said.
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