Major Overview

Description

In order to be effective, health care professionals need to understand not only the workings of the body from a scientific perspective, but also to know how people and societies function, and the art and science of caring for people. A caring health professional is assisted by interpretive ability and insight, applies ethical sensitivity and has an awareness of their own values and attitudes. The aim of this major is to prepare individuals working across the health professions for caring for poeple through bringing together the traditions of humanities, inquiry, compassion, and judgment to bear on the management and on the promotion of health and the treatment of illness. Those traditions include the many ways cultures have of representing, narrating, analyzing, knowing, and organizing health, illness, treatment and human interactions.

Outcomes

Students are able to:

  1. Demonstrate understanding of the historical, cultural, religious and political contexts of theories and practices related to health and medicine
  2. Demonstrate utility of perspectives derived from the humanities in analyzing approaches and practices related to health and medicine
  3. Explore and understand connections among health and medicine with the arts including literature, music and visual arts, and the use of the arts as a tool for healing
  4. Review, analyse, consolidate and synthesize knowledge from a variety of sources about what it means to be human and its translation into the optimal care of people
  5. Demonstrate ability to self-reflect on values and unconscious biases that impact on health and health care
  6. Apply effective communication skills using written, visual and verbal forms in demonstrating understanding of learning outcomes and in the potential care of others.
Broadening guidelines

All students studying towards a Bachelor's Degree at UWA are required to Broaden their studies by completing a minimum of four units (24 points) of study outside their degree specific major. Broadening is your opportunity to explore other areas of interest, investigate new disciplines and knowledge paradigms and to shape your degree to suit your own aspirations and interests. Many of you will be able to undertake more than this minimum amount of broadening study and we encourage you to do so if this suits your aspirations. Over the next few months you will find here some broadening suggestions related to your degree-specific major. While we know that many students value guidance of this sort, these are only suggestions and students should not lose sight of the opportunity to explore that is afforded by your Broadening Choices. Advice can also be sought from your Allocated Student Advising Office.

Prerequisites

Students who have not achieved a scaled mark of at least 50 in ATAR Mathematics Applications or equivalent or higher, will need to successfully complete MATH1720 Mathematics Fundamentals in their first 48 points of study in this course.

Corequisite
None
Incompatibilities
None
Courses

Humanities in Health and Medicine can be taken as a degree-specific major in the following degree courses:

Example Study Plans

See study plans for more information.

Units

Key to availability of units:
S1
Semester 1
S2
Semester 2
SS
summer teaching period
N/A
not available in 2024 – may be available in 2025 or 2026
NS
non-standard teaching period

Students who do not have ATAR Mathematics Applications or equivalent or higher, are required to successfully complete MATH1720 in their first year.

Level 1

Bridging units

Take units if applicable:

Students who do not have ATAR Mathematics Applications or equivalent or higher, are required to successfully complete MATH1720 in their first year.

Students who do not have ATAR Mathematics Applications or equivalent or higher, are required to successfully complete MATH1720 in their first year.

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S1, S2 MATH1720 Mathematics Fundamentals
Prerequisites
Mathematics Applications ATAR [with a scaled score of less than 50] or with permission
Incompatibility
Mathematics Applications ATAR [with a scaled score of 50 or greater] or Equivalent or higher
Degree-specific major units

Level One—take unit(s) to the value of 12 points:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S1 ANTH1001 Being Human: Culture, Identity and Society
Incompatibility
ANTH1101 Being Human: Culture, Identity and Society
S2 ENGL1902 Reading Bodies None
S2 HART1003 Ways of Seeing: Themes and Theories in Art None
S1 INDG1150 Aboriginal Encounters: Strangers in our Backyard
Incompatibility
HIST1100 Aboriginal History
S1 LAWS1111 Law, Conflict and Change None
S2 NEUR1001 Neuroscience in Society None
S1, SS PHIL1002 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Incompatibility
PHIL1105 Introduction to Critical Thinking
S2 PSYC1102 Psychology: Behaviour in Context None
S1 PUBH1101 Health and Illness in Human Populations None

Level 2

Degree-specific major units

Level 2—take the following unit:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S2 BMED2001 Humanities in Health and Medicine
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
level 1 24 points Unit(s)
Degree-specific major units

Level 2 Options—take unit(s) to the value of 12 points:

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S1 AHEA2201 Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing
Prerequisites
for the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing major: INDG1150 Aboriginal Encounters: Strangers in our Backyard.
or INDG1160 Boodjar Moort Katitjin: Introduction to Indigenous Heritage and Knowledge.
for the Population Health major: PUBH1101 Health and Illness in Human Populations.
or PUBH1102 Health and Globalisation.
for pre-2012 courses: HIST1100 Aboriginal History.
for the Women's Health minor: IMED1108 Issues in women's health across the lifespan.
Incompatibility
IMED2293 Aboriginal Health, IMED3393 Aboriginal Health
N/A ANTH2405 Sex, Gender and Social Life
Prerequisites
any Level 1 ANTH unit
or GEND1901 Days of our Lives: Gender in Australia
Incompatibility
ANTH2217 Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
N/A ARTF2031 Living Art
Prerequisites
ARTF1052 Fine Arts Studio: Record, Visualise & Imagine (formerly VISA1050 Art of Visualisation and Recording) and/or ARTF1053 Fine Arts Studio: Space, Time & Beyond (formerly VISA1053 Video Art: Methods and Means)
Incompatibility
VISA2214 Aesthetic Crossovers of Art and Science
S2 IMED2200 Mental Wellbeing for Today's World None
S2 LAWS2220 Birth, Life and Death: Health and Medical Law
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
any one LAWS1104 Introduction to Law
or LAWX1104 Introduction to Law
or LAWS1110 Crime and Society
or LAWS1111 Law, Conflict and Change
or LAWS1112 Adulting: Law for Everyday Lives
or LAWS1120 Australian Legal Principles and Institutions
or ANHB1101 Human Biology I: Becoming Human
or ANHX1101 Human Biology 1 (Becoming Human)
or IMED1001 Form and Function
or PUBH1101 Health and Illness in Human Populations
S1 PHIL2001 Bioethics
Prerequisites
any level 1 unit in the Bachelor of Arts, or equivalent
Incompatibility
PHIL2201 Social Ethics: Life and Death
S2 PHIL2006 Philosophy of Psychology and Psychiatry
Prerequisites
any Level 1 Philosophy unit
Incompatibility
PHIL2290 Problems in Philosophical Psychology
S1 PUBH2209 Plagues, Pox and Pandemics: the History of Death and Disease
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
24 points

Level 3

Degree-specific major units

Take all units (12 points):

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S1 BMED3001 Narrative Medicine for research, education and practice
Prerequisites
Successful completion of
BMED2001 Humanities in Health and Medicine (ID 6754)
S1 BMED3002 Application of Humanities to Health care
Prerequisites
Enrolment in
Major(s) MJD-HHMED Humanities in Health and Medicine
Degree-specific major units

Take one unit (6 points):

For SVLG 3003 you must complete additional designated assessments

For SVLG 3003 you must complete additional designated assessments

Availability Unit code Unit name unit requirements
S2 BMED3003 Building the bridge while walking over it: the journey to person centred health care
Prerequisites
BMED3001 Narrative Medicine for clinical practice, research and education,
and BMED3002 Application of Humanities to Health care,
and enrolment in
Humanities in Health and Medicine Major HHMED
NS, S1, S2 SVLG3003 McCusker Centre for Citizenship Internship
Incompatibility
SVLG1002 SVLG2002