Department of Social Sciences

Introduction

Phone +36 1 486 4910
Email etk.tarstud@semmelweis.hu
Head of Department Professor Helga Judit Feith, Ph.D.

Background The Department of Social Sciences belongs to the Institute of Basic Health Sciences. It also contains a specialised unit, the Division of Foreign Languages and Communication. The role of the Department is to support all students in preparing for their health care professions as embedded in contemporary societies. Our Department offers dominantly practice oriented knowledge – discussing general and special health care related problems – in the fields of Sociology, Medical Anthropology, History of Health Sciences, Law, Ethics, as well as Medical Economy and Management. These modules – as essentials in health care labour market – are to improve conscious employee competencies. Our Department actively participates in an extended Europe-wide network, COHEHRE by delegating one of the council members for its management. The members of the Department of Social Sciences occupy leading positions in several professional and social organizations and take part in their work (Hungarian Association of Medical History, Public Body of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Sociological Association, The European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH), Hungarian Association of Sport Studies). Furthermore, our colleagues have a hand in the edition of different scientific journals, such as Develoments in Health Sciences, Development and Financing, Central European Studies, Kaleidoscope – Journal of History of Culture, Science and Medicine.

Education

The Department takes part in the educational development of all B.Sc. and M.Sc. programmes of the Faculty and in the elaboration of curricular directives. As a participant of full time and part time trainings in Nursing and Patient Care, Health Care and Disease Prevention, and Medical Laboratorial Diagnostic Imaging programmes, the Department is responsible for teaching the following subjects: Health and Society, Introduction to Health Care Economics, Health Care Management, Health Care Law, Bioethics and Professional Ethics, Philosophy of Health, Thesis Methodology. Additionally, the Department has been organising the Health Care Project Manager postgraduate course (in Hungarian) since 2008, which enables graduates of the course to successfully (project) manage tasks and situations in every area of the health system. As a result of an educational cooperation between Semmelweis University Faculty of Health and Public Services, Semmelweis University Faculty of Health Sciences and the Budapest Metropolitan University, the Health Care Management B.Sc. started in Hungarian language (with Health Tourism Management speciality) in a form of part time programme in September 2014. The programme is supervised by the Faculty of Health and Public Services (the programme supervisor is Dr. Miklós Szócska). Our Department is involved in the coordination and teaching work related to the programme.

The Health Care Management B.Sc. programme enables graduates of the course to successfully design and construct client-centred health care service and health tourism programs, to analyse statistical data related to tourism, and to coordinate touristic and health touristic projects with the implementation of knowledge about the system of health care and touristic institutions.

One of the main concerns of the Department is to provide adequate and flexible knowledge in the most suitable ways, therefore we devote special attention to the innovation of our methods of instruction. To keep a continuous interdisciplinary discussion about this topic, we have organized eight ‘Professional Days on Teaching and Research Methodologies’ so far. Most of our staff have experience in teaching abroad, which has broadened our perspectives and made us more conscious about the approaches we apply.

Research Main research areas of the Department include:

labour migrants in the health care sector;
health and social care of migrants and minorities in Europe;
comparative analysis of archive sources, legal sources on health care of the 18-19th centuries;
epistemology of interpretative anthropology;
minority education and its effects on cultural connectedness;
comparative analysis of dentistry business income producing capability;
typology of ancient votive uterus-representations;
analysis of the archival sources related to the birth-control and the midwife training;
ethical and legal dilemmas in the practice of perinatal intensive care, from the point of view of the beginning and the end of life;
the socioeconomic status of nurses and its sociocultural context.

The Department has delegated the management committee members from Hungary for two COST Actions: HOME (Health and Social Care of Migrants and Minorities in Europe) and ADAPT (Adapting European Health Systems to Diversity). In this latter one we collaborated with the IOM (International Organization for Migration) in expanding the well-known MIPEX (Migrant Integration Policy Index) to the field of health. Our Department proudly hosted three international professional workshops on Roma health issues and four national professional days on patients’ rights and health tourism as well in the last 5 years.

In 2015, the Department of Social Sciences gave place for the Professional Day on Health Tourism. Our Department has organised the Health Tourism Professional Day in Hungarian for a total of six times, which is a bridge between higher education and various professional fields and market players. Since the BSc course will be in English from autumn 2022, the Professional Day will be held in English from the academic year 2024-25.

The Department of Social Sciences initiated the MECENAtour programme in autumn 2022, which offers a wide range of optional mini-courses for first-year students. The main aim of the programme is to promote the socialisation, integration, academic pro-gress and career orientation of students, and to help them to stay in their studies and to support them in their career choices. The programme involves senior students who contribute to courses as peer tutors.