An Introduction to Medicine
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide some cultural tools to build an awareness and a capacity for critical reflection on the complexity of the medical profession and on the scientific, social, ethical and relational contexts in which it operates. In particular we will discuss: 1. The concepts of health, disease/illness, medicine and care in their historical development and in the current framework; 2. Methods, tools and limits of scientific and clinical research and their role in the progress of knowledge and medical practice; 3. The concept of global health as gazing both towards a planetary dimension and towards the close interrelation between social factors and the health conditions of communities and individuals; 4. Principles of bioethics: a guide to on the main philosophical and ethical questions of human existence that doctors encounter in their daily activity; 5. Considerations on the experience of suffering and death and its emotional and relational implications in a context of care; 6. The psycho-cognitive mechanisms of clinical reasoning and medical decision and their relationship with the emotional sphere and with uncertainty.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course the student must know: 1. The concepts of illness/disease, health, medicine and care and reflect on aspects of complexity related to them; 2. The fundamentals of scientific and clinical research and identify their methodological characteristics; 3. The concept and principles of global health, and the main dynamics between socio-economic-environmental conditions and global, community and individual health status and reflect on their effects in terms of objectives and methods of medical, health and beyond-health interventions; 4. The fundamental ethical questions of the medical-scientific activity and set the speculative and behavioural considerations in a complex context; 5. The main emotional elements and the relational dynamics inside the relationship with human suffering and death. 6. The main psycho-cognitive processes of reasoning and decision in clinical practice, and identify some useful tools for the processing of errors and decision-making responsibilities.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Educational website(s)
Professor(s)
Reception:
Via Pace, 9