Why Earn Your Medical Humanities - Premed Degree at Saint Leo University?
Medical Humanities has grown as a new field of study over the last decade as those in medical fields recognize the need for doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and others in health-related fields to possess a more sympathetic view of health, illness, suffering, and death to more effectively and empathetically treat patients and clients. Medical Humanities programs are housed in colleges of medicine and colleges of liberal arts alike, offering majors, minors, and certificates to meet this need. As both a liberal arts and a Catholic institution, we are well-placed to offer this degree that emphasizes and respects the importance of the human person in matters of health. To support the interdisciplinary of the degree, the major is housed in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies.
The Medical Humanities major is designed to prepare students to succeed in diverse health-related fields and/or graduate study. The interdisciplinary degree integrates the humanities with science-focused education, emphasizing disciplines such as philosophy, the arts, literature, history, and the social sciences for a more empathetic and holistic understanding of health and illness. The interdisciplinary of the degree allows students to create their own focus of study. In each path of study, students will analyze issues of health, wellness, and illness through an interdisciplinary lens and explore the historical, philosophical, artistic, and religious/spiritual backgrounds of the medical sciences. Additionally, students will synthesize the ethical and social features of health, illness, and medicine.
Learning Experience:
Campus
Est. Time to Complete:
Credit Hours:
Bachelor's in Medical Humanities - Premed Program Details
In this Pre-Med concentration, students will follow the Pre-Med curriculum (44-semester hour credits), which includes broad training in the sciences in addition to humanities coursework. This option provides flexibility to students to craft a curriculum that fits their interests while still providing essential instruction in the Medical Humanities.
Career Opportunities
The Medical Humanities major focuses on preparing students mainly for health-related fields, but offers students a choice of tracks for further specialization. The Pre-Med track prepares students for medical school and provides the minimum science and math courses needed to succeed on the MCAT. Alternatively, the Pre-Med track could prepare students for other graduate medical fields such as dental, nursing, or physician assistant programs. In addition to the core science curriculum, these students will also take courses in humanities.
Career paths can include:
- Medicine
- Dentistry
- Pharmacy
- Occupational Therapy
- Nursing
- Law
Medical Humanities - Premed Track Requirements
The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was updated in 2015 to include a section on critical analysis and reasoning
skills with 50% of the content in the humanities and 50% in the social sciences. A second new section is the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section, with 65% of the content focused on introductory psychology, 30% of the content focused on introductory sociology, and 5% on introductory biology, further testimony to the need for those going into the medical profession to possess a more holistic view of medicine and the patient. The Pre-Med track of the Medical Humanities major was designed specifically to meet these needs.
Accreditation
Saint Leo University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate, bachelor’s, master’s, specialist, and doctoral degrees.