About us

Department of Medical Communication and Medical Humanities

The idea of teaching subjects in the field of humanities and social sciences at our medical university was initiated with the establishment of the Social Sciences Center in 1985 (head: Dr. Jan Klimiński). On the basis of this unit, the Social Medicine Study was created in 1991, directed until 2016 by Dr. Jolanta Domaniewska. Until 2019, it was an interdepartmental unit. Then it was transformed into the Laboratory of Social Medicine and incorporated into the structure of the Faculty of Medicine.

In 2021, with the retirement of the current head of the Social Medicine Laboratory, Dr. Waldemar Kwiatkowski, this function was taken over by dr. hab. Aldona Jankowska, prof. UMK; previously running the Medical Communication Laboratory, and thus these two units of the Faculty of Medicine of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Medical Center were merged. In 2024, the Laboratory of Social Medicine was transformed into the Department of Medical Communication and Medical Humanities.

The mission of our Department: Education in the field of medical communication and promoting appropriate doctor-patient relationships and relationships in the medical team. Discovering the socio-cultural, psychological, ethical and philosophical dimensions of health, disease and medicine. Searching for solutions to patients’ psychological and social problems and bioethical dilemmas in medicine from a holistic and axiological perspective.

Our classes: Medical communication; Medical communication in clinical practice; Communication in optometric practice; Medical ethics; Ethics with Deontology; Professional ethics; Sociology; Sociology of medicine; Sociology of health and illness; History of philosophy; Ethical and sociocultural issues of death and dying; Sociological study femininity, birth and maternity care; Sociology of fashion, body, image; Social consequences and dilemmas of medical progress; Collective behavior: crowd, panic, disaster.