Education

The New Utrecht School offers different forms of education in which students are challenged to think about complex challenges society is facing.

An interdisciplinary perspective on health.

Master Medical Humanities

The master of science Medical Humanities revolves around complex challenges. An example of such a complex challenge is that we have an enormous amount of biomedical knowledge, but at the same time this knowledge is being challenged by an increasing distrust in science. Consider, for example, the suspicion towards vaccination. Such complex issues require professionals who can connect medicine and biomedical sciences with the humanities.. In this master's degree, students work on these issues. For more information see here.

Wicked Problems in Health Care: A Trans- and Interdisciplinary Approach

In this intensive ten-week course, students are confronted with the increasing complexity of contemporary healthcare problems. The course offers a trans- and interdisciplinary approach, bringing together fields such as medicine, psychology, economics, and public administration to develop a broad understanding of healthcare challenges. Students learn how collaboration between different disciplines is crucial for finding effective solutions.

The program focuses on developing skills such as critical and creative thinking, flexibility, and teamwork. Students are challenged to think beyond their own field of study and come up with innovative, patient-centered solutions that take into account the broader societal context of healthcare.

Social Innovation Projects

Together with the Journal of Trial and Error, we have worked on fostering a culture of connection, with room for failure and uncertainty, at the University Medical Center Utrecht. The project consists of various components. For instance, we developed a pilot for an accredited interprofessional course for nurses and medical specialists. The course focuses on meaningful encounters. Additionally, we organized a lecture series by leaders on uncertainty and failure, to address the inevitable vulnerability in the healthcare operations of UMC Utrecht. This lecture series was then turned into a special issue on 'Scientific failure and uncertainty in the healthcare domain', which will be published in the Journal of Trial & Error. This academic year, we have started developing an interprofessional simulation training in which medical specialists spend an entire shift as if they were nurses.

Minor Medical Humanities

Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that is formed by the structural exchange of knowledge and insights in a collaboration between (bio)medical sciences and healthcare disciplines on the one hand, and humanities disciplines such as ethics, communication, philosophy, history and (reflection on) art on the other. The aim of Medical Humanities is to develop a solid theoretical understanding of themes such as health, disease, patient experience, sustainable care, life and death. This gives students a better insight into the perception of patients and into the healthcare system, so that they can work on innovative solutions in practice. For more information see here.