Religious Studies 213
I. Course Title: Healthcare and the American Religious Landscape (GE)
II. Course Number: RELN 213
III. Credit Hours: 3 credits
IV. Prerequisites: None
V. Course Description:
Lecture. This course addresses religion as a significant factor in contemporary U.S. contexts of healthcare delivery. Topics include, among others: religious diversity, demographics, and healthcare institutions; collective identity and experiences of healthcare; role of religion in provider–patient interactions; and religious communities and healthcare delivery.
Note(s): General Education and Humanistic or Artistic Expression designated course.
VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:
This course connects knowledge about religious diversity in the United States to the design and delivery of professional healthcare by examining interactions between culturally specific notions of religion and health and systematic arrangements of care.
Unit 1) Religion, Healthcare, and the U.S. Demographic Landscape
The course begins with a broad exploration of the relevance of religious-cultural information to the healthcare system in the United States. This unit provides an overview of transformations in the religious diversity of the U.S. population since the early twentieth century and surveys religion’s role in American models of healthcare practice. Students employ historical, ethnographic, and quantitative perspectives to develop broad knowledge about the range of religious and spiritual identities and communities found in the United States and various models of professionalized healthcare delivery.
Unit 2) Religious Understandings of Health and U.S. Healthcare Contexts
Next, the course turns attention to the ways that healthcare systems in the United States have interacted with specific religio-cultural understandings of health. In this unit, students develop particular knowledge about health and wellness in traditions that comprise the nation’s diverse religious landscape, including such traditions as Judaism; Christianity; Native American religions; Mexican-American curanderismo; Afro-Caribbean religious cultures; Islam; Ayurveda; traditional Chinese medicine; Appalachian folk medicine; and unaffiliated forms of spirituality. Through particular focus on these traditions, students investigate how religious and spiritual traditions have interacted with healthcare institutions and public understandings of healthcare in local and national contexts.
Unit 3) Implementing Religious-Cultural Competence in U.S. Healthcare
The course concludes with a unit that examines strategies for delivering culturally competent care with respect to religious distinctiveness in the United States. Students analyze religion and spirituality as aspects of understanding medicine, delivering and receiving care, and institutional policies and practices for managing these concepts and experiences. In particular, students explore a range of perspectives on religion as an influential factor in patient experiences of care, models for culturally competent interventions with respect to religion, and strategies for developing connections between religious communities, healthcare institutions, patients, and providers.
VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:
As an intermediate-level offering, this course employs a number of teaching and learning strategies and activities including the following, among others:
- Instructor-led lecture and discussion
- Student led discussion and small-group discussion
- Formal or informal debates
- Individual and group oral presentations
- Informal and formal writing assignments
- Journal-writing
- Individual and collaborative research activities involving library and Internet searches
- Written and oral analysis of cases and/or texts
- Written summaries/evaluations of out-of-class events
- Guest lecturers/presenters
VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:
Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify demographic trends in U.S. religious affiliation;
- Explain the significance of religious-cultural competency for healthcare delivery in the United States;
- Describe relationships between healthcare-delivery models and religious ideas, practices, and experiences; and
- Compare and contrast models for incorporating religious-cultural competency in professional healthcare contexts.
VIII. Assessment Measures:
A variety of assessment tools will be used. These may include quizzes/exams, writing assignments, presentations, and research papers, among others.
Review and Approval
August 2020
March 01, 2021