Katie Watson, JD For most sessions, the entire college meets together for the first hour of class; four small groups per college meet for the second hour. Eight small group leaders in addition to mentors Ethics and Values, a first-year unit of Patient, Physician & Society, considered the individual physician's obligations to patients and patients' families. This second-year unit, The Profession of Medicine, takes up the social and institutional aspects of belonging to a profession—with law and moral theology, one of the three original and privileged professions. Medicine's ability to fulfill its moral goals is affected by larger social conditions: economics, politics, and the law. These conditions can support or impede the development of a therapeutic alliance between patient and physician; they either create a health care system that treats the sick --or they fail to do so. Thus, this unit concerns the social ethics of being part of a profession as well as the ethics of the individual physician. The goals are to introduce some of the ways that the medical profession's commitment to act on behalf of the patient is challenged by law, public policy, or economic disparity. We assume that patient advocacy is at the core of medicine's values. Each week looks at the way that advocacy works out in the present day United States and asks, How will you practice medicine? Required readings are listed on the weekly summary sheets, and most are included in the course pack. As a start toward putting readings for every course online, the others, marked with an asterisk (*), can be found on CourseInfo. A number of the readings are old; we include them because they haven't yet been surpassed. Come to class prepared to discuss them. Accessing the readings on CourseInfo. For each week's topic, the articles listed in the coursepack with an asterisk (*) have links that can be found on Blackboard. To find these articles: 1. Visit https://courses.northwestern.edu/webapps/login.
2. Sign in using your regular NetID and password that you use to get onto the Northwestern server.
3. Click on Patient, Physician, and Society II 03-04.
4. Click on Course Documents.
5. Click on Profession of Medicine.
6. Click on the topic where the article appears in the coursepack.
7. Click on the article you want to read. To prepare for class and to keep up your writing skills, you are asked to write a short response to the topic of the coming week's reading. A paragraph of 200-250 words is about right. This paragraph can reflect your thinking process or it can be a more finished product. Make it personal if you like. It does not have to be an argument. It may not be a dry summary of the reading. Six of these in total are required. Each week's essay is due before class. Some tutors like to receive them by email the day before. Others prefer handwritten or printed copies. Check with your tutor. On Blackboard you'll find 6 randomly generated questions about the week's reading. You have until 11am the day of your class to answer them. You may use your coursepack. Most weekly assignments include cases and questions for small group discussion. They are also fair game for response essays. The faculty member who is your tutor has primary responsibility for evaluating your work. He or she will base it on: | Attendance: | You are expected to be on time for every session and to remain until the day's agenda is complete. If you are ill or if other circumstances beyond your control prevent you from attending a session, you must notify your tutor beforehand. Your reason for absence will be communicated to the unit director, and individualized make-up arrangements will be made when feasible. Unexplained or unexcused absences are grounds for failing the unit. | | Participation: | You are expected to participate in all unit activities -- both small group and full college sessions—and complete response essays and quizzes on time. | | Knowledge: | Your grasp of the knowledge relevant to the profession of medicine will be assessed by your tutor, who will gauge the quality of your discussion in the seminar groups and in what you have written. | | Attitudes: | Throughout the unit, you are expected to demonstrate appropriate respect for the viewpoints of your colleagues. |
Grades for this unit are “Pass”, “Marginal Pass” or “Fail”. This information is reported to the Associate Dean for Student Programs and to your College Mentor. Subsequent performance of students who marginally pass this unit will be monitored to ensure that those students get the help they need. Students who fail this unit will be provided with a remediation plan. Note that the final PPS/M2 course grade is comprised of grades in each M2 unit. Students who fail two or more M2 units will fail the entire PPS/M2 course, and the Student Promotions Committee will be provided with a recommendation that the PPS/M2 course be repeated in full. You must complete the anonymous online evaluations of your faculty and of the unit within one week after the end of the unit to meet the requirements of Profession of Medicine. The evaluation program is confidential and will not be communicated to your tutor; however, the program identifies whether or not you have submitted evaluations. Failure to complete both evaluations within this time frame will result in a grade of "Incomplete." Failure to submit evaluations within one month after the unit ends will lower the best obtainable unit grade to "Marginal Pass." Unless there are extenuating circumstances, a grade of "Incomplete" that remains at the end of the academic year converts to "Fail." | 
