Members of the Rowe Scholars Program are highly encouraged to take coursework that focuses on developing a holistic health care provider. The University offers several courses of particular interest to Rowe Scholars that promote relationship-building, communication skills, and career exploration. Students should note that UNIV 3784: The Health of Communities is required of all new Rowe Scholars.
- PNB 3278: The Patient and the Healer
- UNIV 3784: The Health of Communities
- UNIV 3784: Introduction to Physical Examination
Fall Semester
PNB 3278: The Patient and the Healer
This course is intended to provide prospective health care professionals with some grounding and experience in learning about and reflecting on how patients and families experience illness, and in learning what it is like to be a patient and what it’s like to be a healer.
This course will:
- Concentrate on developing skills to listen, interpret, organize, and report the stories patients and families tell (generally referred to as the patient history).
- Provide students with an understanding of and appreciation for the importance of communication skills and professionalism for careers in the health professions.
- Assist students in learning how to elicit complete stories, how to organize and focus while writing those stories, and opportunities to practice out loud the reporting of stories for the benefit of both patients and providers.
- Encourage appreciation of and reflection on the importance of the doctor-patient relationship beyond the professional template for reporting the history and physical exam findings.
The course will consist of didactic sessions, interactive discussion sessions where students and facilitators share experiences, hands-on interactions with mock and real patients and health providers, and review of related literature. It is viewed as a way to create interaction and synergy for students interested in the health professions between the main campus in Storrs and the UConn Health campus in Farmington.
*A background in the sciences is not required, however the course is intended for students in the Special Programs, the post-baccalaureate program, and those who are on the pre-medical track.
Spring Semester
UNIV 3784: The Health of Communities
A central purpose of this course is to provide a dedicated forum for Rowe Scholars to work, learn, and bond as a team in a health context centered on appreciating the social determinants of health. This course will focus on understanding and appreciating the role of social factors that impact and determine health risks of individuals (such as income, work environment, social cohesion, life necessities, social network, and transportation systems).
Students will:
- Review and consider readings on various public health interventions with attention to intervention efficacy, appropriateness, and ethical ramifications.
- Consider historical antecedents to contemporary community health center models of care with special attention on the needs of vulnerable populations.
- Explore the concept of social medicine, the complexities and nuances of any categorization of persons in discussions of health and illness, and the ethical issues related to community-based research.
- Visit community health centers, community health agencies, and service programs to address community needs. Students will identify and select a community service activity.
- Participate in the design and implementation of a service project working with such groups as Student Health Services, the Urban Service Track Program, the Migrant Farm Worker Clinics, and Mission of Mercy.
- Complete projects that address topics such as child or adult obesity health interventions, measuring improved health outcomes utilizing a comprehensive health service approach, evaluating early behavioral health intervention in school settings, or assessing health literacy interventions in health professions settings.
*This course is required of new Rowe Scholars, open to other Rowe Scholars with permission.
UNIV 3784: Introduction to Physical Examination
This course is intended to provide college students interested in the healing professions some grounding and experience in learning how patients and families experience illness, and in learning what it’s like to be a professional health provider.
This course will:
- concentrate on developing skills to listen, interpret, organize, and report the stories and data, symptoms, and conditions patients and families tell and present (generally referred to as the patient history & physical examination)
- provide further training in clinical reasoning and decision making
- teach the preliminaries of the Review of Systems and the Physical Exam
- assist students in learning how to elicit complete stories, in learning how to organize and focus the writing of these stories, in practicing out loud the reporting of these stories for the benefit of both patients and providers, and in learning the format, style, and practice of the physical examination component of the patient-physician interaction
- teach students the efficient professional template for reporting the history and physical exam findings
- have students appreciate and reflect on the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and to learn and appreciate the basic skills involved in completing the medical history and physical exam – what it’s like to be a patient and what it’s like to be a healer
The course will consist of some didactic sessions, some interactive discussion sessions where students and facilitators share experiences, some hands-on interactions with mock and real patients and health providers, and discussion of related literature. The course is intended for those interested in learning about and reflecting on the experience of being a patient.
*A background in the sciences is expected.
Return to About the Rowe Scholars Program