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Pathos Project Undergraduate Program (PPUP)

 

After great demand from undergraduates the PPUP was initiated in early 2006.

The purpose of the PPUP is to develop the intellectual theory and the human dispositions necessary for the practice of person-centered medicine in future healthcare providers.   Consisting of both intellectual discussion groups and volunteer service to chronically ill patients, undergraduates will be aided in understanding and then forming the requisite virtues and dispositions necessary to practice and foster personalism in medicine.

Developed by Pathos Project founders, Maricich and Oxley, and refined through valuable input by Dr. Salud II, undergraduates interested in the profession of medicine and healthcare are learning how to provide person-centered care and have gone on from our program to make a difference in the lives of patients.

 

Why an Undergraduate Program?

 

The Pathos Project Undergraduate Program (PPUP) is a Pathos Project educational program for undergraduate students interested in pursuing careers in medicine and healthcare.   It provides undergraduate students an opportunity to address issues of “personalism” and “professionalism” in medicine while fostering dispositions necessary for the practice of person-centered medicine. Regardless of the intellectual force behind a theory, the praxis of any science requires certain qualities and dispositions of the practitioner.   For this reason, a crucial element of the curriculum is service. This is accomplished in two ways:

(1) a curriculum-based six part seminar that utilizes health care professionals identified by the Pathos Project who serve as facilitators in discussing personalism in medicine (e.g. suffering, the doctor-patient relationship, virtues in medicine, what does it mean to be a “good” doctor, end-of-life care)

(2) by providing an opportunity for undergraduates to apply what they have learned into real-life volunteer experiences with patients at the bedside.

 

While the program and its curriculum are provided and administered by Dr. Antonio Salud II, and the Pathos Project team, it is student-coordinated and institution-based. In implementation, the Pathos Project provides materials (e.g. the curriculum and discussion articles) and identifies talented health professionals to facilitate discussion sessions from our network of Pathos Project physicians.

 

Student coordinators at the sponsoring educational institution are then selected and responsible for coordinating events and marketing the program to other students at the undergraduate institution. We work for successful transition of student coordinators and facilitators to maintain program sustainability and integrity.

 

For more information or to initiate the PPUP at your home institution, contact us at info@pathosproject.org .

 

Program Objectives

 

Facilitate students to:

Short-Term

 

• Explore the issues and topics of personalism and professionalism in medicine
• Generate a list of specific skills, qualities, and characteristics to be fostered and trained in healthcare professionals
• Provide an overview of various models of personal identity, exploring their associated views of meaning and purpose
• Provide an overview of various models of the human person
• Present overview of the biopsychosocial model and holistic medicine and various interpretations of dignity, success, quality of life and freedom
• Provide an overview of human suffering and its relationship to pain
• Provide an overview of the human aspects of disease and illness, noting its social effects
• Correlate models of the human person with interpretations of illness and suffering
• Present Methods for Establishing Caregiver-Patient Relationships and Facilitating Caregiver-Patient Communication
• Discuss and practice applying models of the human person to illness and suffering
• Present an opportunity for intellectual discussion
• Provide an opportunity for the development and growth personal dispositions necessary to practice compassionate, person-centered medicine

 

Long-Term

 

• To prepare future clinical physician and nursing mentors to provide person-centered clinical care
• To re-personalize medicine by radically changing clinical interactions and encounters with the patient into experiences which restore, as much as possible, the human functions and confirm the dignity of the patient.
  

 

Click here for the PPUP teaching objectives [link], for Student Testimonials [link], or for why we think an undergraduate-focused program is important to promoting personalism in medicine.