Paper Short Abstract:

Medical anthropology is growing within health education. Our content helps to improve communication, understanding of patient behaviour and needs, professional satisfaction, lower costs, etc.. I will reflect on my experience coordinating the module “diversity in medicine” in medical education.

Paper Abstract:

Medical anthropology is a growing subfield of anthropology, especially as a subject within health education. Over the past decades, medical anthropology was gradually introduced to become part of the education of nurses, medical doctors, and occupational therapists in undergraduate and post-graduate programs. For many, being a medical anthropologist teaching in health professions education still often means being “the social sciences´ alien” of a team of natural scientists and physicians. Our content helps to improve communication, understanding of patient behaviour and needs, professional satisfaction, lower costs, and overall better health outcomes for all involved (less stress and less conflicts). These benefits are not seen by students nor by colleagues from the start and therefore we need a lot of communication about it. I see this already as part of the process of teaching anthropology. What helps the learning of the students, and the acceptance of the content overall is the involvement of patients as speakers about their journey within healthcare services. A team of teachers with different professional backgrounds also contributes to the success of a module/course: nurses and doctors with migration biographies or from minorities, ethicists, and professional interpreters among others. I will present some reflections on the module “diversity in medicine” which I coordinated in a bachelor program of medical sciences at a university in Austria. Being innovative in a very conservative faculty was my goal. Successful teaching is influenced by structural factors as well as leaders´ opinions on costs and needed efforts to offer this.