Graduate Certificate in Bioethics and Humanities in Health

We understand the demands of professional life. Our program is designed to meet your professional needs and goals:

Flexible options: Choose from course formats including asynchronous options and varying credit loads (1-3 credits).

Flexible timing: Take one course or complete the full certificate and complete it at your own pace.

Collaborative Environment: Learn alongside colleagues from diverse health professions and apply concepts directly to your current work.

Financial Value: $542 per credit hour, with tuition assistance available for University of Colorado System employees through the TAB program.

Career Advancement: Earn up to 12.0 credit hours to apply toward a Master’s degree in health humanities at CU Denver.

This program welcomes professionals from diverse backgrounds in health-related fields, including:

• Clinicians and healthcare professionals
• Clinical Ethics Ambassadors
• Researchers and laboratory professionals
• Healthcare administrators, policy makers, and legal professionals
• Educators and program directors
• Public health professionals
• Social workers and mental health professionals
• Students preparing for or already enrolled in health professional graduate programs
• Health communication specialists
• Community health workers and advocates

BEHH 5210: The Art of Observation (In person): The Art of Observation is designed to sharpen participants’ perceptual and analytical skills, which are essential for excellence in clinical practice in dentistry, medicine, and other professional fields. The goals are to increase compassion and empathy, encourage tolerance for ambiguity and diversity, recognize biases in interpretation and foster reflection and honest communication using the arts to gain these skillsets.

BEHH 5211: The Art of Listening (In person): The Art of Listening is an innovative course that explores the profound intersection of musical and clinical listening skills to enhance practice in medicine, dentistry, and other healthcare fields. Participants will explore how musical narratives unfold, mirroring the way patient histories are constructed and understood in clinical settings. Special attention is paid to the emotional and cultural aspects of music, encouraging students to reflect on how these elements influence perception and interpretation in healthcare. This approach fosters empathy and cultural competence, crucial attributes in today's diverse healthcare landscape.

BEHH 5212: Pain & Dentistry in the History of Western Art: This interdisciplinary course explores the intersection of pain and dentistry through the lens of Western art history since 1500, examining how dental pain has been uniquely represented in artistic works while investigating broader themes of human suffering, inequality, and medical practice. Through a blend of asynchronous and synchronous learning over 8 sessions, students engage with historical and contemporary perspectives on dental medicine, considering how past representations and understandings of dental pain inform modern dental practice. The course combines reflective writing, collaborative Wiki development, and group presentations to help students develop historical fluency in dental practice and patient experience that they can apply to contemporary dental medicine.

BEHH 5214: From Burned Out & Extracted to Regenerative Healing: This course uses William Carlos Williams' "The Doctor Stories" as a framework for healthcare practitioners to reflect on and find meaning in their experiences of burnout. Through weekly story readings, daily 5-minute reflective writing exercises connecting clinical encounters to the stories, and group discussions, students learn to transform challenging moments into opportunities for personal growth and developing what John Launer calls "a radical facilitative presence" for both themselves and their patients. The course aims to help participants move from a state of burnout to one of regenerative healing through structured reflection and communal sharing of experiences.

BEHH 5310: Ethical Care in Patients Living with Dementia: This course examines the ethical considerations in caring for patients living with dementia, addressing the growing challenges of an aging population where nearly 55 million people worldwide live with the condition. Through case studies and interactive discussions, participants explore key concepts like autonomy, informed consent, and decision-making capacity. The course equips healthcare providers with the knowledge and skills to deliver compassionate, ethical care that balances patient rights and safety while honoring the dignity and individuality of those living with dementia.

Key Takeaways:

1. Analyze ethical dilemmas that arise in the dementia population
2. Navigate care interactions with patient’s living with dementia and their families
3. Describe and apply tools to improve the care setting

BEHH 5311: Moral Distress in Healthcare: Moral distress is a growing challenge in healthcare settings, where professionals know the ethically correct course of action, but face barriers in implementation due to institution, role-based, or legal constraints. Through case studies and group discussions, participants will explore the causes of moral distress - including conflicts between personal values, institutional policies, patient wishes, and resource limitations - while developing strategies to recognize and address these issues in themselves and colleagues. The course aims to foster resilience and ethical decision-making skills while promoting a supportive culture that prioritizes moral well-being in healthcare settings.

Key Takeaways:

1. Distinguish moral distress from other ethical dilemmas in the clinical setting
2. Navigate and enhance ethical decision-making
3. Analyze cases of moral distress and identify methods for improvement

BEHH 5350: Narrative Principles and Practices in Healthcare: This 1-credit course introduces students to the intellectual and clinical discipline of narrative work in healthcare through both theoretical foundations and practical applications. Through structured workshops and in-person instruction, students develop skills in close reading of texts and writing, learning how to apply narrative principles to healthcare settings. The course aims to help healthcare professionals better understand and work with the stories and narratives that are fundamental to medical practice.

BEHH 5213: Reflections on Incarceration & Well Being (hybrid): This discussion-based course examines incarceration as a structural determinant of health, exploring how the carceral system impacts individual, community, and societal well-being through engagement with writings from incarcerated and previously incarcerated authors, critical theories, and empirical texts.

Over 16 weeks, students delve into crucial topics including healthcare delivery, conditions of confinement, mortality data collection, and specific challenges faced by diverse populations like pregnant individuals, aging incarcerated individuals, and those with disabilities.

Through weekly discussions, reflections, and a final policy letter, students develop a deep understanding of how mass incarceration intersects with public health while centering the lived experiences of individuals with lived experience.

BEHH 5010: Foundations of Bioethics & Humanities in Health (required for certificate): This course combines two essential areas of study: The first eight weeks focus on the foundations of bioethics, examining moral frameworks used in medical and health settings and their application to clinical, organizational, and population-based cases. The second eight weeks explore the foundations of narrative practice in medicine through engagement with various texts and other materials. Each section maintains its distinct focus while providing students with complementary perspectives on health and health care.

BEHH 5215: Culture and Health (asynchronous, with in-person/synchronous meeting options): This course bridges diverse scholarly perspectives to investigate the social and cultural practices that contribute to health and disease around the world. Through interdisciplinary approaches, we examine how universal human phenomena are experienced differently in diverse contexts, exploring the complex interplay between biological, socioeconomic, historical, spatial, and cultural factors in shaping health experiences.

BEHH 5410: Research Methods in the Health Humanities (asynchronous, with in-person/synchronous meeting options): This immersive course explores the intersections of humanities and healthcare through methodological inquiry. Its central goal is to foster a deeper understanding of how humanities-based research methods can illuminate the complex experiences of health, illness, and healing in contemporary society. Through this lens, you will gain invaluable insights into the ways different research methodologies can reveal and examine health disparities, patient experiences, and cultural approaches to healing.

BEHH 5450: Addressing Health Stigma in Social Contexts: This 3-credit interdisciplinary course examines health stigma in social contexts, providing students with tools to understand why health stigma is prevalent and how it can be addressed. Through in-person seminars, students learn to analyze health stigma and develop explanations for its persistence while exploring potential interventions and solutions.

BEHH 5655: Introduction to Public Health Ethics: This 3-credit introductory course explores the fundamental concepts and frameworks of public health ethics, with particular emphasis on distinguishing between public health ethics and healthcare ethics. Through in-person lectures, students learn to analyze public health ethics cases and apply appropriate ethical frameworks to public health challenges.

BEHH 5750: Pain, Its Paradoxes & the Human Condition: This interdisciplinary graduate course explores pain as a universal yet deeply personal aspect of the human condition, examining its paradoxes and complexities through diverse lenses including history, philosophy, literature, public health, and medicine. Through a blended learning format combining synchronous and asynchronous sessions, students engage with seven problem-based learning modules to investigate topics ranging from the culture of pain to its inequitable distribution across social strata, while developing critical understanding of pain's relationship to suffering, stigma, and social justice.

BEHH 5850: Clinical Ethics: This graduate-level clinical ethics course introduces students to key theories, methods, history, and practical applications of medical ethics through monthly discussions and hands-on learning activities. Through a combination of readings, case analyses, independent projects, in class discussions, and discussion boards, students explore critical topics such as informed consent, confidentiality, end-of-life care, reproductive ethics, and treatment decision making, while developing practical skills in ethical reasoning and consultation. The course emphasizes active participation and real-world application, with students completing case analyses and an independent research project that allows them to deeply explore an area of clinical ethics that aligns with their interests.