Sociology of Health Professions Education Mini-Conference at ESS 2019!

Laura Hirshfield (University of Illnois - Chicago), Tania Jenkins (Temple University) and Kelly Underman (Drexel University) co-organized a mini-conference at the Eastern Sociological Society meetings in Boston this past March 15-16, 2019. 34 papers were presented over the course of two days, spanning such topics as empathy in the health professions, to institutional challenges in health professions education (HPE), to technologies of HPE. An explicit goal of the conference was to help bridge ties between academic and practical sociology, and to that end, we were able to bring together a diversity of experts and presenters, including (1) sociologists working in sociology departments, (2) sociologists working in healthcare, industry, and research, and (3) clinicians (MDs, pharmacists, physical therapists, nutritionists). We also counted five PhD students, 1 master’s student and 3 undergraduate students as presenters! A conference dinner at the end of the first day offered even more opportunities to foster dialogue and connections between scholars. We hope to organize another mini-conference on the Soc of HPE next ESS.

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​Celebrating a participant's birthday at dinner

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