Medical Humanities Commons^™

Balance & Juggle, Ellen Zhang

Journal of Wellness

This poem is a work of fiction inspired by experiences, observations, and conversations I have had with female physicians, colleagues, and mentors. They shared their stories of balancing their personal and professional life as they navigated titles ranging from trainee to mother. This piece aims to shed light on recent research highlighting that female surgeons face higher rates of infertility and are more likely to miscarry during pregnancy than the overall US female population. This piece is a reminder to all that being a physician is a choice, but also a sacrifice.

Empathy And The Medical Student House Call: The Effect Of Clinical Settings On Empathy In Third Year Medical Students, Philip B. Collins, Thomas Dinzeo, Jennifer C. Sepede, John F. Bertagnolli, Christian White

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

OBJECTIVE: This study measured the effect the experience of house calls might have on third-year medical students.

METHODS: Students were surveyed via an anonymous online survey at the start of their geriatrics clerkship, again at the end of their clerkship, and once more three months later. Empathy was measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student version (JSE) and student attitudes towards the geriatrics population was measured using the UCLA Geriatrics Attitudes Scale (GAS). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 27.0.

RESULTS: No changes in empathy were found when comparing students who completed house calls versus those who did …

The Ethics Of Governance Of Data Analytics In Healthcare, Andrew Harrington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent literature and studies on data governance usually focus on data ethics and governance from a specific country or industry, which has been mostly business, without considering the larger global impact that is affected. Data is a worldwide asset; thus, its implications and considerations should be viewed as such. Hence, this dissertation attempts to incorporate this view by weaving together topics in healthcare, such as the blending of finance and delivery, data governance at the micro and macro levels, data analytics in healthcare, ethics of AI and information management, and technology’s impact on end-of-life practices. Through highlighting these areas of …

The Ethical Contribution Of Cultural Diversity As A Social Determinant Of Health, Pooja Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation examines how cultural diversity as a social determinant of health, aligned with human life, human dignity, human rights, and human equity provides an ethical contribution. My explanation of the ethical contribution of cultural diversity as a SDOH refers to a quadrant of topics that expands the approach of the UNESCO Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights. The UNESCO approach addresses cultural diversity in relation to human dignity and human rights. I adopt a quadrant of topics that aligns human dignity with human life and human rights with equity. Aligning these topics in the quadrant (dignity/life and rights/equity) explains …

The Blurred Lines Between Medicine And Wellness: A Historical Approach Comparing Osteopathic Physicians, Chiropractors, And Physical Therapists, Heather Soled, Dylan Trawinski, Sonya Priven, Sheam Jahan

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

In modern society, there stands a large number of medical titles with nuances that complicate the layperson’s ability to differentiate standard of care and capabilities. As the world evolves, new job opportunities in the medical and related fields are being constructed to provide positions with various levels of certifications that qualify many caregivers to provide similar and often coexisting levels of care. Some disciplines may agree or disagree on principle; this is just one point of confusion for the mass. Furthermore, disciplines that disagree on principle may still apply analogous treatment models. Such confusion has yielded several challenges for less …

Evaluation Of Available Medical Interpretation Resources Available To Spanish-Speaking Patients In Nj Ahec Counties, Magdalene Lederer, Cindy Nativi, Madhav Patel, Joseph Mendoza, Nhi Tran, Yesha Patel, Melissa Vincent, Rebecca Moore

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

According to the US Census Bureau Spanish is the most common non-English language spoken in the US. Despite the growing population of Spanish-speaking individuals, most healthcare providers can only communicate in English. Linguistic differences between patients and providers have been identified to impact the quality of care received, therefore, it is not surprising that Spanish-speaking patients have been found to be less satisfied with healthcare. Language barriers in healthcare lead to poor compliance and underuse of services which eventually negatively impact health outcomes. Several studies found that the most effective communication tools are often underutilized, with healthcare providers relying on …

Wellness Review 2022, Part 2, Martin Huecker, Brian A. Ferguson, Jacob Shreffler

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Similar to prior reviews, the Journal of Wellness editors searched the literature from the second half of 2022 for an interesting and impactful selection of publications on wellness in healthcare professionals.

Methods: Editors conducted a standard keyword search in Pubmed, focusing chiefly on large journals, interventional trials, and other prospective research. We included papers published between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022.

Literature in Review: Finding several hundred publications, we excluded editorials, reviews, and some smaller, less generalizable papers. A final 25 significant studies focusing on wellness in medical professionals were sorted into the following categories: logistics, creativity …

Peer-Supervision Of Nursing Professionals: A Shield Against Burnout, Kyle Gamache, Sarah Gamache, Joseph Robillard

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Burnout is a major risk in healthcare professions and is a significant contributor to the current nursing shortage. Strategies to combat burnout of healthcare professionals are in desperate need. The purpose of this project is to introduce the clinical peer supervision model as a method to alleviate burnout in nursing professionals.

Approach: Eight nurses from in-patient settings participated in a peer-supervision support group, modeled after existing European nursing and mental health provider-support protocols. To assess the effect of this intervention, qualitative data analysis was conducted on the transcripts of session and the results described. All participants reported statistically high …

An Induced Annual Modulation Signature In Cosine-100 Data By Dama/Libra’S Analysis Method, Govinda Adhikari, Nelson Carlin, Jaejin Choi, Seonho Choi, Anthony Ezeribe, Luis Eduardo França, Chang Hyon Ha, In Sik Hahn, Sophia J Hollick, Eunju Jeon, Jay Hyun Jo, Han Wool Joo, Woon Gu Kang, Matthew Kauer, Bongho Kim, Hongjoo Kim, Jinyoung Kim, Kyungwon Kim, Sunghyun Kim, Sun Kee Kim, Won Kyung Kim, Yeongduk Kim, Yong-Hamb Kim, Young Ju Ko, Doo Hyok Lee, Eun Kyung Lee, Hyunseok Lee, Hyun Su Lee, Hye Young Lee, In Soo Lee, Jaison Lee, Jooyoung Lee, Moo Hyun Lee, Seo Hyun Lee, Seung Mok Lee, Yu Jin Lee, Douglas Leonard, Bruno B Manzato, Reina H Maruyama, Robert J Neal, James A Nikkel, Stephen L Olsen, Byung Ju Park, Hyang Kyu Park, Hyeonseo Park, Kangsoon Park, Se Dong Park, Ricardo L C Pitta, Hafizh Prihtiadi, Sejin Ra, Carsten Rott, Keon Ah Shin, Andrew Scarff, Neil J C Spooner, William G Thompson, Liang Yang, Gyun Ho Yu

Faculty and Staff Publications

The DAMA/LIBRA collaboration has reported the observation of an annual modulation in the event rate that has been attributed to dark matter interactions over the last two decades. However, even though tremendous efforts to detect similar dark matter interactions were pursued, no definitive evidence has been observed to corroborate the DAMA/LIBRA signal. Many studies assuming various dark matter models have attempted to reconcile DAMA/LIBRA's modulation signals and null results from other experiments, however no clear conclusion can be drawn. Apart from the dark matter hypothesis, several studies have examined the possibility that the modulation is induced by variations in detector's …

Pressure, Motion, And Conformational Entropy In Molecular Recognition By Proteins, José A Caro, Kathleen G Valentine, Taylor R Cole, A Joshua Wand

Faculty and Staff Publications

The thermodynamics of molecular recognition by proteins is a central determinant of complex biochemistry. For over a half-century, detailed cryogenic structures have provided deep insight into the energetic contributions to ligand binding by proteins. More recently, a dynamical proxy based on NMR-relaxation methods has revealed an unexpected richness in the contributions of conformational entropy to the thermodynamics of ligand binding. Here, we report the pressure dependence of fast internal motion within the ribonuclease barnase and its complex with the protein barstar. In what we believe is a first example, we find that protein dynamics are conserved along the pressure-binding thermodynamic …

Ethics And Epidemiology Workshop Report: Towards Ethics-Informed Epidemiology And Epidemiology-Informed Ethics, Zoe Ritchie, Brendan T. Smith Phd, Maxwell J. Smith Phd

Health Studies Publications

Two key groups of researchers have worked in parallel to advance health equity—one on the descriptive component (those in public health sciences, e.g., epidemiologists) and one on the normative component (those in the humanities and social sciences, e.g., philosophers and ethicists). Yet a significant gulf exists between their respective research. Consequently, advances in thinking regarding the philosophical underpinnings and normative requirements of health equity have been largely divorced from the design of public health interventions that seek to reduce health inequities. As a consequence, public health interventions aiming to advance health equity may fail to target the most appropriate populations …

Mommy, Me, And We: Why Black Mothers Have Turned To Doulas, Janessa Harris

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Maternal mortality rates have disproportionately affected black mothers for far too long due to the lack of value that black bodies hold in medical spaces. Because of this concerns voiced by black people are often disregarded and ignored until the very last minute. But what if this was changed? This paper will focus on how black mothers have worked against Western medical systems that silence our voices, but instead turn to doulas who work to make these mothers feel seen, heard, and cared for. Through this, we make birthing a careful and collective effort to turn Mommy&Me to Mommy&We.

Emulating Future Neurotechnology Using Magic, Jay A. Olson, Mariève Cyr, Despina Z. Artenie, Thomas Strandberg, Lars Hall, Matthew L. Tompkins, Amir Raz, Petter Johansson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Recent developments in neuroscience and artificial intelligence have allowed machines to decode mental processes with growing accuracy. Neuroethicists have speculated that perfecting these technologies may result in reactions ranging from an invasion of privacy to an increase in self-understanding. Yet, evaluating these predictions is difficult given that people are poor at forecasting their reactions. To address this, we developed a paradigm using elements of performance magic to emulate future neurotechnologies. We led 59 participants to believe that a (sham) neurotechnological machine could infer their preferences, detect their errors, and reveal their deep-seated attitudes. The machine gave participants randomly assigned positive …

Renal Replacement Therapy Could Be Initiated In Patients With Severe Aki, Regardless Of Age And Critical Condition, El Hussain Shamsa

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

A clinical decision report using:

Meersch M, Küllmar M, Schmidt C, et al. Long-Term Clinical Outcomes after Early Initiation of RRT in Critically Ill Patients with AKI. J Am Soc Nephrol. Mar 2018;29(3):1011-1019. https://doi.org/10.1681/asn.2017060694

for a critically ill elderly patient with severe acute kidney injury.

Discussing The Injustice Of The Covid-19 Vaccine Pass Imposed On Medical Consultation In Public Hospitals In Hong Kong, Fung Kei Cheng

Journal of Health Ethics

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated public health, economy and social life all over the world, especially wherever a vaccine pass scheme has been implemented. Many countries have begun to relax schedules to return to normal activities. In contrast, Hong Kong continues to tighten the utilisation of a vaccine pass for medical services in order to boost vaccination rates. Such a practice not only significantly challenges ethical and operative concerns but also threatens health equity and social justice for healthcare decision-makers and practitioners, consequently hurting public health and community well-being. This discussion analyses the various arguments, reviews vaccine hesitancy and suggests …

Wellness Review 2022, Part 1, Martin Huecker, Brian A. Ferguson, Jacob Shreffler

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: This article represents the first of a two-part assessment of 2022 literature addressing wellness in healthcare professionals published from January 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022.

Methods: Three editors conducted a similar keyword search in Pubmed, also adding manually curated articles. Focusing chiefly on clinical trials and other prospective research, we settled on a final 25 significant papers focusing on wellness in medical professionals to include in this review.

Literature Review: Recent literature into HCW wellness continues to describe burnout factors and COVID-19 impact, but includes more resilience-targeting interventions and systematic reviews of trials seeking bolstering of well-being. Subsections …

On Conflict, Brenden Huynh

be Still

Conflict

In the past, I’ve always been one to avoid conflict. Conflict always had a negative connotation in my mind. I did whatever I could to avoid it. Because of my aversion to conflict, I have had to compromise my time and my efforts in numerous situations. I’ve held my tongue to prevent problems; but sometimes, this would lead to even more. This has affected me all my life, whether its a friend who said something I wasn’t fond of or a waitress that messed up my order, I almost never said anything simply to avoid conflict. Last year, I …

Is A Video Worth A Thousand Words?, Laura Kolbe, Ryan H Nelson, Joelle Robertson-Preidler, Olivia Schuman, Inmaculada De Melo-Martín

Faculty and Staff Publications

Bodily imagery elicits strong affective responses and is highly salient, potentially altering viewers' decision making. When clinicians engage surrogates in video calls showing the patient's body, several competing ethical issues must be considered. On the one hand, surrogates may require visual information to make informed decisions, and video technology closes crucial information gaps. On the other, video technology puts an increased amount of control in the hands of clinicians over how the patient's condition is perceived. This article explores some situations that can result in manipulation due to the affective impact of bodily images and the potential for selectivity and …

Narrative Authority: A Narrative-Based Multicultural Ethics To Overcome Western Biases In The Current Models Of Care, Fahmida Hossain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technological advances and globalization are transforming healthcare dramatically. But unfortunately, current medical practices remain blind to their multicultural patients’ varied worldviews and norms, especially in the West. As a result, patients often find themselves isolated, anxious, and resentful.

All the humanistic models in the current literature view the individual as a unique and autonomous being and, in turn, provide practices to access and recognize the patient’s personhood. These models—Narrative Medicine, Narrative Ethics, and Ethics of Care—attempt to catch sight of the individual, the person’s situation, and some semblance of the person’s story before diagnosing or offering prescriptions. However, all these …

Understanding The State Of Lgbtqia+ Healthcare And Support In Camden County, Sayan Basu, Sana Farhat, Cindy Capps, Ali Harb

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

4.5% of American adults identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and about 1.4 million adults identify as transgender.

This demographic is impacted by many social determinants of health and health disparities, particularly for transgender patients.

33% of LGBTQIA+ patients ranging from a pool of 28,000 surveyed patients have had a negative experience with their health providers, and 8% of them had to educate their physicians about their needs due to physicians’ lack of knowledge about this demographic.

Research suggests that there is a reluctance to access mental health services in the LGBTQIA+ community due to homophobia,, difficulties disclosing sexual and …

Medical Ethics: From The Perspective Of Undergraduate Pre-Health Students, Hannah Im

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The burden of ethical decision-making is a significant contributor to compassion fatigue in healthcare professionals. Due to the impact of moral conflicts, it may be beneficial to reassess the effectiveness of current ethics education and training. While previous studies have surveyed a range of medical professionals and students, it remains unclear if exposure to ethics topics during undergraduate education could better prepare future healthcare workers. Thus, there is a need to identify the necessity of introducing ethics courses into the required pre-health curriculum. The following study took the first step to gauge this by surveying undergraduate pre-health students on their …

The Ethics Of Masking During A Pandemic, Mason Bennett

Philosophy Undergraduate Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has been disastrous, approaching a million deaths in the United States alone, and has demonstrated the world’s lack of preparation for a severe airborne virus. Countermeasures to infection are important to implement in order to lessen loss of life, but also must be justified and shown to be ethical. A countermeasure which is especially viable is wearing masks because of their high efficacy in preventing disease transmission compared to their relatively low restriction of liberty; studies have shown that mask wearing effectively impairs the spread of airborne pathogens and creates little physical or social harm. I argue …

Wellness Review 2021, Part 2, Brian A. Ferguson, Martin Huecker

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: This article presents Part 2 of the biannual JWellness Review of literature from 2021 (July – December). We emphasize new science and resilience initiatives published outside of JWellness that seek understanding of burnout and thriving among healthcare professionals (HCPs).

Methods: For the interval of July 1 to December 30, 2021, PubMed was queried for empirical and observational research studies, review articles, guideline summaries, letters, and editorials. Of 93 results, we reviewed methods and salient points to arrive at a final list of 48 articles for inclusion.

Literature in Review: Common themes that emerged included teamwork, EMR optimization, group decompression, …

Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals And Breast Cancer: Disparities In Exposure And Importance Of Research Inclusivity, Ashlie Santaliz Casiano, Annah Lee, Dede Teteh, Zeynep Madak Erdogan, Lindsey Trevino

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are known contributors to breast cancer development. EDC exposures commonly occur through food packaging, cookware, fabrics, and personal care products as well as through the environment. Increasing evidence highlights disparities in EDC exposure across racial/ethnic groups, yet breast cancer research continues to lack the inclusion necessary to positively impact treatment response and overall survival in these socially disadvantaged populations. Additionally, the inequity in environmental exposures has yet to be remedied. Exposure to EDCs due to structural racism poses an unequivocal risk to marginalized communities. In this review, we summarize recent epidemiological and molecular studies on two lesser-studied …

A Feminist Challenge To Transgenderism. A Review Of Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge To Transgenderism By Janice G. Raymond, Esohe Aghatise

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Trans Doublethink And Newspeak. A Review Of Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge To Transgenderism By Janice Raymond, Heather Brunskell-Evans

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Role Of Race In American Medicine, Fariel C. A. Lamountain

Honors Theses

Long running inequity in health care and outcomes in the United States stem from failure to acknowledge the underlying role of the Transatlantic slave trade as it manifests in all facets of American society and commerce. This paper focuses specifically on the American medical system and its foundations to understand the precursors to generational trends in lack of access to healthcare and poor health for Black communities. This paper uses a three-pronged approach to understand the racist cycle of inequity, highlighting the history and origins of racism in American medicine, personal accounts and statistical evidence of inequity, and community and …

Student Pharmacists’ Emotional Responses And Coping During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hannah E. Johnson, Deaundre Bumpass, Aric Schadler, Jeffrey Cain

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Health professions students, including student pharmacists, have been impacted by the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19 pandemic) as schools have transitioned to remote learning and cancelled milestone events. During times of crises, media consumption and hobby participation also impact well-being. The adverse emotional responses and coping strategies of student pharmacists amidst the COVID-19 pandemic have not been evaluated, nor have factors that may contribute to emotional responses. The purpose of this study is to determine Doctor of Pharmacy students’ emotional responses and coping precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the influence of media use, working status, and participation in hobbies. …

Going Beyond The Data: Using Testimonies To Humanize Pedagogy On Black Health, Keisha S Ray

Faculty and Staff Publications

When health professions learners' primary pedagogical experience of Black people and how they become patients is through statistics, it becomes very easy for learners to think of Black people as data points rather than as individuals whose health is often at the mercy of racist institutions. When the human dimension of Black people's health is ignored, specifically the ways that poor health affects individual wellbeing, one of the barriers to proper health for Black patients is how to be seen and considered as a part of a larger problem of systemic racism and institutional injustices as well as individuals whose …

Strong Constraints From Cosine-100 On The Dama Dark Matter Results Using The Same Sodium Iodide Target, Govinda Adhikari, Estella B De Souza, Nelson Carlin, Jae Jin Choi, Seonho Choi, Mitra Djamal, Anthony C Ezeribe, Luis E França, Chang Hyon Ha, In Sik Hahn, Eunju Jeon, Jay Hyun Jo, Han Wool Joo, Woon Gu Kang, Matthew Kauer, Hyounggyu Kim, Hongjoo Kim, Kyungwon Kim, Sunghyun Kim, Sun Kee Kim, Won Kyung Kim, Yeongduk Kim, Yong-Hamb Kim, Young Ju Ko, Eun Kyung Lee, Hyunseok Lee, Hyun Su Lee, Hye Young Lee, In Soo Lee, Jaison Lee, Jooyoung Lee, Moo Hyun Lee, Seo Hyun Lee, Seung Mok Lee, Douglas Leonard, Bruno B Manzato, Reina H Maruyama, Robert J Neal, Stephen L Olsen, Byung Ju Park, Hyang Kyu Park, Hyeonseo Park, Kangsoon Park, Ricardo L C Pitta, Hafizh Prihtiadi, Sejin Ra, Carsten Rott, Keon Ah Shin, Andrew Scarff, Neil J C Spooner, William G Thompson, Liang Yang, Gyun Ho Yu

Faculty and Staff Publications

We present new constraints on dark matter interactions using 1.7 years of COSINE-100 data. The COSINE-100 experiment, consisting of 106 kg of tallium-doped sodium iodide [NaI(Tl)] target material, is aimed to test DAMA’s claim of dark matter observation using the same NaI(Tl) detectors. Improved event selection requirements, a more precise understanding of the detector background, and the use of a larger dataset considerably enhance the COSINE-100 sensitivity for dark matter detection. No signal consistent with the dark matter interaction is identified and rules out model-dependent dark matter interpretations of the DAMA signals in the specific context of standard halo model …