Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Sep 2022 Open Access

Viruses Don’t Discriminate, But People Do: Teaching Writing for Health Professionals in the Context of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter

Deborah Harris-Moore

Abstract

This essay explores changes to an upper-division writing course Writing for Health Professionals in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the events that propelled Black Lives Matter into the media spotlight. Although instructors were required to move courses online with little time to prepare, I describe my efforts to incorporate the topics surrounding the pandemic and racial inequality into the course curriculum. The course consists of a medical ethics unit and a professional dossier; I found that both units became richer and more helpful to students by incorporating the context and kairotic moment in readings, class discussions, weekly forum posts, and major assignment options.

Journal
Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
Published
2022-09-28
DOI
10.5744/rhm.2021.4e2
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Topics
writing pedagogy advanced composition race and writing
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