SHSU History Degree Would Target Aspiring Doctors
The latest prescription for aspiring physicians and dentists: Take a few courses in history.
Sam Houston State University is planning a new bachelor’s degree in history for undergraduates who want to attend medical or dental school.
The goal, administrators and faculty members say, is to improve the quality of physicians with a broad-based education and to remedy a projected shortage in medical professionals.
"There is logic to it," said Jim Olson, a professor and former chairman of Sam Houston State’s history department. "Medical schools want broader intellectual backgrounds in their student body."
Not a done deal yet The Texas State University System’s governing board endorsed the new degree last month. It still must win approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which could come in July.
The proposed program will not require any new courses or faculty members, campus officials said.
The list of required courses will not diverge significantly from the basic curricula for traditional history majors. Prospective doctors and dentists, however, would take the science courses needed for admission to medical or dental school instead of the customary 15 credit hours of foreign language.
Sam Houston State’s plan coincides with a national discussion about prerequisites for medical school, said Stephen Greenberg, dean of medical education at Baylor College of Medicine.
"What are the skill sets and backgrounds that students should have before they get to medical school?" Greenberg asked. "Those kinds of discussions are happening locally and nationally. We will probably see changes in the coming years."
Those changes may include more emphasis on English and writing skills, Greenberg said.
Most focus just on science Nearly 60 percent of those applying for medical school list biological sciences as their undergraduate major, and less than 5 percent studied the humanities.
The numbers have been relatively steady since 1992, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports.
The new degree would fit the mission of Sam Houston State, which began as a teachers college and later expanded to other subject areas, such as business and criminal justice.
In making the case for the new degree, campus leaders told regents that recent studies show there are no significant differences in medical board examination scores between students from traditional and nontraditional fields.
Three SHSU students recently were admitted to medical school.
And the university’s alumni include Melinda Estes, president of Fletcher Allen Health Care in Vermont, and Tarek Souryal, an orthopedic surgeon who is the team physician for the Dallas Mavericks.
matthew.tresaugue@chron.com
—–
To see more of the Houston Chronicle, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.HoustonChronicle.com.
Copyright (c) 2007, Houston Chronicle
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.