Health and Human Rights Education

Methods for HHRE Curriculum Integration

Health and Human Rights Curriculum Integration

NOTE: Before Picking a Method, Do Your Research
Before beginning a HHRE initiative, learn more about your school's existing programs and interests. Also, be sure to assess what resources are available to you as you envision the method of curriculum integration most applicable to your school. This assessment should include resources on your campus, in your community, and the ones PHR provides, such as:

• HHRE Toolkit
• Syllabi, Class Modules and Coursework
• HHRE blog posts, to serve as examples for getting involved
• Successful Strategies for Implementing Health and Human Rights Education in Your School, which outlines research methods

Common Methods for HHR Integration

There are many approaches to bringing a health and human rights perspective into your curriculum. Here are five ways to get involved:

• Develop an elective. By combining the educational content and implementation tools HHRE provides with your own creativity and passion, you will have all the tools needed to build a health and human rights elective in your school. See the Student-Created Curriculum and the HHRE Chapter Profile as examples.
• Augment human rights programming in existing classes. Examples include:

  Modules or lectures integrated in an existing course, such as courses on dual loyalty and social ethics as part of Medical Ethics

  Practicum or skill-based training, such as a refugee health cultural competency training as part of doctoring lessons and classes

  Film, discussion, or journal groups that focuses on HHR issues relevant to a course

• Establish a resource or information center on your campus for human rights initiatives or research. Examples include:

  Health and Human Rights section in your library. (If you already have many scattered resources in your library, create and promote a "HHR Catalog" to make them easily accessible)

  Office for health and human rights opportunities, such as fellowships, internships, research projects, or community service

• Set Up a Health and Human Rights “Enrichment Rotation.” Enrichment rotations add to the standard curriculum with outside research and hands-on experience. Examples:

  WVU requires a rural enrichment rotation where students “learn to recognize and appreciate the special health care needs of the medically underserved populations of rural West Virginia”

  Harvard Medical School’s AIDS Division allows students to choose between urban and community-based electives, including travel in South Africa to do clinical work and research

• Create an online course. Using web-based lectures with HHR experts and relevant reading recommendations, you can tie them together to create an online course

CMEs

For interns, residents, and professionals, there are also Continuing Medical Education (CME) options. These include: human rights-related Grand Rounds, skill trainings, workshops or teleconferences. CME programming can be in a variety of formats and topics and is open to the creative and resources of the community. For examples of CME programs, visit American Medical Association’s FAQs on CME. The key to making an initiative a CME is to navigate your state’s Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education approval process. Contact Danielle at dfox[at]phrusa[dot]org for tips about CME initiatives.