Stony Brook University's Center For Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, And Bioethics To Offer Masters Track Beginning Spring 2011

Program serves students from a wide range of academic disciplines and professional backgrounds

STONY BROOK, N.Y., September 14, 2010 Press Release – Stony Brook University is now accepting applications for its Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics track in the Master of Arts in Biological Sciences. Courses begin in the spring 2011 semester. Named for the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics founded in 2008, the new MA track will serve students from a wide range of disciplines and professions.

The 30-credit masters track can be completed in one to three years. The Center encourages MA applicants from a variety of backgrounds, including nursing, social work, ministry, journalism, philosophy, humanities, the social and life sciences, administration, business, the arts, law, public policy, religious studies, and others. Applicants who hold a baccalaureate degree without professional experience are welcome, as are clinicians and other professionals.

"Seasoned professionals, medical students and undergrads who just finished up and want do something for a year before marching on to law school or medical school will find this track of great interest,” said Center Director, Dr. Stephen G. Post.

Situated in the Department of Preventive Medicine in the School of Medicine, the Center is equally attentive to the three thematic components in its name. It builds on a commitment to medical humanism and ethics that has defined education for Stony Brook students over three decades.

"This is a Center in which the human side of medicine is elevated, examined, and revered," said Dr. Post. "It provides students an education not just in the dilemmas of bioethics, but in medical humanities centered on the experiences of patients. We want students to see patients as more than biological puzzles. We want them to be aware of the importance of relationships and compassion in the art of healing. It’s the loss of care in this most basic sense that is currently being singled out across the United States as the most pressing concern not only of patients, but of physicians and other healthcare professionals."

More information on the Center for Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics and the masters track can be found on the program site. For more information, contact DS,TU editor Michael L. Dorn.