Abstract
The authors conducted a baseline survey of baccalaureate and graduate degree health humanities programs in the United States and Canada. The object of the survey was to formally assess the current state of the field, to gauge what kind of resources individual programs are receiving, and to assess their self-identified needs to become or remain programmatically sustainable, including their views on the potential benefits of program accreditation. A 56-question baseline survey was sent to 111 institutions with baccalaureate programs and 20 institutions with graduate programs. Respondents were asked about three areas: (1) program administration (managing unit, paid director, faculty lines, paid staff, funding sources); (2) educational program (curricular structure, CIP code usage, completion rates); and (3) views on accreditation for the field. A clear majority of respondents agreed that some form of accreditation or consultation service could address resource and sustainability issues. Overall, the survey responses to staffing, curricular structure, and support suggest the need for developing a sustainable infrastructure for health humanities.
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Data Availability
Deidentified data that support the findings of this study are available on request from Craig Klugman (cklugman@depaul.edu). The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank our respondents for participating in the survey. We also thank the Steering Committee of the Health Humanities Consortium for its input on the survey.
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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
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The survey was declared exempt by the Institutional Review Boards at DePaul University (January 2022) and Creighton University (February 2022).
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Endnotes
1 CIP data are collected for all programs in federally funded public and private educational institutions several times a year. These data include demographic information about students, enrollment, completion rates, staffing, program/institutional resources, financial aid, and selected student financial status data, among other data.
2 The NCES defines CIP code 51.3204 as “A program that explores the ethical, historical, literary, philosophical, and religious dimensions of medicine or health. Includes instruction in art, cultural studies, economics, ethics, history, literature, medical anthropology, philosophy, religion and spiritual thought, science and technology, visual art, and writing” (NCES 2020). This definition is not prescriptive and may include other elements in various programs. Programs elect to adopt a CIP code with institutional administrators. The decision is up to reporting institutions, not NCES.
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Berry, S.L., Klugman, C.M., Adams, C.A. et al. Health Humanities: A Baseline Survey of Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in North America. J Med Humanit 44, 463–480 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-023-09790-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-023-09790-5