Medical Humanities Commons^™

Four Sights Of The Patient (Ophelia), Cecily Ann Fergeson

Graduate School of Art Theses

I make work in a variety of media, largely dealing with the imagery and material of the human body. My current work attempts to reckon with the following subjects: a reclamation of the notion of the so-called medical gaze and its historical record in photography; the idea that receiving the medical gaze transforms patients’ bodies; the idea of illness as an uncanny and intimate experience; and, finally, the act of metaphorically retracing the body’s material journey through the medical institution as it exists today. In this text, I discuss my practice in the context of critical theory, a recent observation …

The Core Relation Between Hospitality (Philoxenia), Dignity And Vulnerability In Orthodox Christian Bioethics: A Contribution To Global Bioethics, Rabee Toumi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a pluralistic world, reaching consensus in matters of bioethics has proved to be difficult, especially with the political polarization that nurtures inimical differences. This dissertation argues that a middle ground can be identified between the plurality of value systems in contemporary bioethics based on an anthropological approach. This middle ground that reflects commonalities of the human condition can be explored in relation to the foundational principles of Orthodox Christian anthropology. To identify this middle ground the analysis discusses the core relation between hospitality, dignity, and vulnerability as a contribution to global bioethics.

In general, based on Orthodox Christian theology …

Doing Well By Doing Good Benefits For The Benefactor, Aneka Khilnani

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

This study seeks to examine if volunteering affects mental and physical health and examine if health behaviors or social participation affect the association between volunteering and perceived mental and physical health.

Method and Data: Using a logistic regression model, data from a cross-sectional study that obtained a statewide representative sample of Texas adults, N=1409, was used to predict an adult’s perceived mental and physical health in relation to volunteering, after controlling for the effects of health behaviors and social participation.

Results: Adults who do not volunteer have an increased odds of reporting poor perceived physical and mental health. After controlling …

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review Spring 2018

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

No abstract provided.

The Ethical Justification Of Equal Candidacy For Organ Transplantation In Alcoholic Patients, Peter A. Depergola Ii

Journal of Health Ethics

An increasingly blurred understanding of the distinctive challenges posed to transplantation medicine and, by extension, public health, by the debilitating reality of alcoholism suggests a critical need to revisit the relationship between causality, candidacy, and culpability in light of substance addiction. This essay grounds its arguments in two, straightforward premises: (i) compassionate medical practice - understood as the sympathetic willingness to enter into the existential suffering of another in order to ameliorate the anguish invoked by disease - rests on the fiduciary relationship shared between provider and patient; and (ii) allocating medical goods according to moral desert rather than existential …

Should Doctors Take Into Account Human Races? A Medical Ethics Approach, Gabriel Andrade

Journal of Health Ethics

Racial discrimination has some very harmful social effects. But, can discrimination in medicine lead to good outcomes? This is an emerging question in medical ethics. It is undoubtedly true that some individuals are more genetically prone to some diseases than others. But, we should not rush to judgment, and believe that race may be a good guide in order to discover what diseases an individual is more susceptible to. Illnesses such as sickle cell-anemia and Tay Sachs disease have long been thought to have a racial correspondence. This is in fact not true. There have also been attempts to prescribe …

A Change Of Heart: Internal Narratives, Forgiveness & Health, Keiko Ehret

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

In this thesis I investigate the interconnectedness of forgiveness as a narrative, as a philosophical, religious and cultural phenomenon, and the ways in which forgiveness is increasingly being used as a vehicle for improving health and psychological well-being. By threading together how scholars in a variety of fields have approached these areas of study, we can better understand the way the interdisciplinary nature of forgiveness grants access to heal not merely relationships with others, but also our bodies, our minds, and our relationship with ourselves.

Important to my investigation is understanding that the life circumstances that prompt forgiveness consist of …

The Medicine Of Middle Earth: An Examination Of The Parallels Between World War Medicine And Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Anna Pfeiffer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

J.R.R. Tolkien’s pioneering work of fantasy fiction, The Lord of the Rings, was written in a period of twelve years, starting in 1937 during WWII and ending in 1949 a few years after the war ended. However, Tolkien’s experience with war began in 1915, when he entered combat in WWI as a young second lieutenant. Understandably, Tolkien’s war experiences have led many fans and scholars to question to what extent the World Wars influenced his works. In response to these queries Tolkien adamantly denied any connection, stating in the forward to the second edition of LOTR that “The real war …

Book Review: Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation By Renate Klein, Sheela Saravanan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Culture Care Needs Of Puerto Rican Women Receiving Hiv Care From Nurse Practitioners In New York City, Michele Crespo-Fierro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this mini-ethnonursing research study was to discover, describe, and interpret culture care values, beliefs, expressions, practices and needs of Puerto Rican women receiving HIV care from nurse practitioners (NPs) and other providers in New York City. The emic, or insider, perspective of Puerto Rican women living with HIV was the focus of this study and Leininger’s Culture Care Theory (CCT) provided the theoretical framework. Various enablers of the CCT, including Leininger’s Sunrise Enabler to Discover Culture Care, guided the design andimplementation of the study. Six key and twelve general informantswere interviewed and data from the interviews were …

The Impact Of Being Born With Cleft And Cleft Reparative Surgery On Overall Health And Speech Outcomes, Khatansuudal Kira Evsanaa, Sam Manning, Jeriemiah Maller

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

Orofacial cleft is one of the most common and treatable birth defects in the world. If left untreated, orofacial cleft can impair normal speech development, and could lead to a number of health consequences later in life. The main motivation of the study is to measure the impact of being born with cleft and the cleft reparative surgery on overall speech and health for teenagers in India using difference-in-differences approach along with household fixed effects method. Overall health outcome was measured using height, weight, grip strength and BMI, and the speech outcome was measured using “Universal Parameters of Speech Evaluation”. …

The Impact Of Cleft Lip And Palate Repair Surgery On Cognitive And Academic Outcomes For Teens In India, Jeremiah R. Maller

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

India has a backlog of an estimated 1,000,000 patients in need of cleft lip and palate repair. Unrepaired clefts result in social stigma and diminished psychological well-being, physical health and academic functioning. Cleft repair surgery has the potential to restore functioning in these domains. However, the magnitude of the social, educational, and economic impact of cleft repair surgery has not been evaluated using statistically rigorous methods. An estimation of the psychosocial and educational impact of cleft repair has implications for the appropriate allocation of public health resources. We use data gathered from teenagers in India. A difference-in-differences method is employed …

Patients Are Our Teachers, Robert E. Becker, Mary V. Seeman

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

In the patient-physician encounter, physicians hone their skills while alleviating the patient’s suffering. Both benefit. Leaning on the work of Hippocrates, Darwin, and William Osler, the authors sketch out the case for honoring patients as indispensable teachers of the art and science of medicine. They argue that this tradition of Hippocratic medicine both anticipates modern precision medicine and reawakens a focus on public health medicine, each a benefit to the patients and communities served by physicians. A community that compromises the learning relationship of physician to patient and population undermines quality of care.

Allopathic Medicine’S Influence On Indigenous Peoples In The Kumaon Region Of India, Eliana M. Blum

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper focuses on the use of western medicine in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, India. The goal of this research is to understand which healing practices are preferable in rural villages. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 53 participants, including two spiritual healers, two doctors, and one pharmacist. Results indicate that allopathic medicine, otherwise known as modern medicine or western medicine, has become the go-to remedy for even the most remote people in India. Nearly all participants use allopathic medicine, but less than half of the participants experiment with other forms of healing, such as Ayurveda, homeopathy, meditation, and yoga. …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

The Validity Of Online Patient Ratings Of Physicians, Jennifer L. Priestley, Yiyun Zhou, Robert Mcgrath

Faculty Articles

Background: Information from ratings sites are increasingly informing patient decisions related to health care and the selection of physicians.

Objective: The current study sought to determine the validity of online patient ratings of physicians through comparison with physician peer review.

Methods: We extracted 223,715 reviews of 41,104 physicians from 10 of the largest cities in the United States, including 1142 physicians listed as “America’s Top Doctors” through physician peer review. Differences in mean online patient ratings were tested for physicians who were listed and those who were not.

Results: Overall, no differences were found between the online patient ratings based …

The Effectiveness Of Needle Exchange Programs In The United States And West Virginia, Margie J. Phillips, Alberto Coustasse, Sara Johnson, Briana Washington

Management Faculty Research

Needle Exchange Programs (NEPs) have been controversial aspects of public health care due to conflicting beliefs and opinions for public policies. NEPs have allowed Injection Drug Users the ability to exchange their used equipment for clean, unused supplies. Research into the effectiveness of needle exchange programs and the impact it has had on the reduction of HIV and viral hepatitis infections in people who inject drugs. Injection Drug Users have accounted for 10% of HIV transmission cases in West Virginia, and this state has been ranked as the highest in the whole United States for incidents of Hepatitis C. NEPs …

The Right Question For Medical Professionals, Linh Nguyen

Writing Across the Curriculum

In the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Lia suffers from continuously escalating and worsening medical conditions surrounding her epilepsy. Throughout the story, blame seemingly kept shifting between the cold and rigid doctors and the non-compliant parents of Lia. However, the real conflict that influenced Lia’s fate was the inability for two different cultures to come to an understanding and collaboration. This conflict is common in almost every health care setting in the world, even in present day. Cultural differences, however, can be overcome with the up-taking of an outlook that focuses on accepting the other …

Addressing Hydrocephaly In Viet Nam: A Plausible Prevention And Intervention Medical Support Program Proposal, Chelle Mcintyre-Brewer

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Families affected by hydrocephalus in Viet Nam have few options for sustainable treatment for a myriad of reasons, primarily centering on barriers to care prevalent to minority, underserved, and economically disadvantaged populations. High morbidity and abandonment rates often result from these circumstances. An interdisciplinary examination of the factors contributing to causal concerns reveals unique cultural considerations, language and literacy barriers, ethnic and geographic differences, as well as economic and governmental issues greatly impacting patient outcome for this condition. The author contends that a program that addresses sociological concerns, along with the medical treatment of the patient, proffers the opportunity for …

Factors Associated With End-Of-Life Planning In Huntington Disease., Nancy R Downing, Siera Goodnight, Sena Chae, Joel S Perlmutter, Michael Mccormack, Elizabeth Hahn, Stacey K Barton, Noelle Carlozzi

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

OBJECTIVE: Knowledge of one's gene status for adult onset conditions provides opportunity to make advance end-of-life (EOL) plans. The purposes of these analyses were to (1) determine the prevalence of EOL plans, including advance directives (ADs) among persons across 3 stages of Huntington disease (HD) and (2) examine factors associated with having ADs in this sample.

METHODS: Data are from 503 participants in the HD Quality of Life study. Participants completed an online health-related quality-of-life survey that included questions regarding EOL planning and self-reported HD symptoms. Frequencies were calculated for EOL planning by the HD stage. Bivariate analysis and logistic …