SCOPES is a student-led initiative that is committed to integrating the arts and humanities into medical education at Duke. SCOPES provides first-year medical students with an opportunity to consider the experiences of patients through creative forms and media, such as photography, film, writing, visual arts, music, and more. Students are encouraged to use art as a tool to reflect on and reinterpret their experiences in medical school and beyond. SCOPES is housed in the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine.
The program is an elective track within the first-year Practice Course curriculum, which introduces students to the practice of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship. Specifically, SCOPES supplements the Community Partners Program nested within the first-year Practice Course Curriculum. The Community Partners Program matches a pair of students with a patient and encourages them to explore the meaning of illness for someone a with chronic disease through a reflective essay at the end of the program. SCOPES augments this experience by offering alternative ways of expression and reflection. Students produce a creative project in the media of their choosing that prompts them to examine the meaning of chronic illness on a deeper level. They are encouraged to work in partnership with their patients to develop a piece that captures the patient’s experience from his or her unique perspective.
In the beginning of the program, students participate in workshops led by artists and physicians within the Duke and Durham communities that facilitate discussion about the role of storytelling and creative reflection in understanding the meaning of illness. The workshops focus on listening to a patient’s story with the goal of constructing a truthful and encompassing narrative, forming a partnership with patients to create insightful pieces of art, and using art to help patients express themselves throughout their healing processes. Throughout the year, students work individually with faculty mentors and meet with their peers at monthly dinners as a means to cultivate and develop their creative ideas. SCOPES culminates in an exhibition that showcases the final projects and is open to people at Duke and the broader community. SCOPES also aims to expand the network of those involved by connecting the medical community with various humanities and art communities throughout Duke and Durham, and encouraging collaboration and discovery.
SCOPES is in its fourth year. Its aim is to create a longitudinal reflective artistic experience as an intrinsic part of the medical curriculum and to foster a close relationship between the Duke University Medical Center, Duke University, and the Durham community.