Mission Statement
The Program in Medical Ethics and Human Values is responsible for innovating and executing the educational integration of medical ethics, humanities, and humanism toward professionalism at Tulane University School of Medicine, with a focus on the relationship of human values and medical ethics. These activities will take place in preclinical, inpatient, and outpatient and graduate school settings, with particular emphasis on excellent clinical care. The mission of the program is to become a national leader of original education and educational research in medical ethics, humanities, and humanism through clinical ethics and human values teaching at the medical school and house officer level. The program will engage in collaborative teaching within the School of Medicine, in the various schools of Tulane University, and with other universities in New Orleans in the fields of ethics, history, fine arts, sociology of medicine, anthropology, law, and social psychology. The program will mentor faculty in medical ethics, humanities, and humanism to become better teachers in these topics and facilitate collaboration with other interdisciplinary centers at Tulane, bringing these concepts and principles to research teams. In support of this purpose, the most critical functions the program will perform are:
- The improvement of ethical and humane clinical care through education of learners regarding human values and ethics in clinical care.
- The conduct of original research in medical ethics and humanities pedagogy.
- The development of an overarching educational program agenda at Tulane University to maximize integration of essential skills and knowledge of ethics and humanities with institutional multidisciplinary collaboration as well and inter-institutional collaboration.
