照亮黑暗的角落、傾聽疾病消除偏見：「疾病與文化」通識課程的實施成效探究

Lightening Dark Corners%2C Listening to Patients%2C Removing Prejudices: A Study on the Instructional Effect of a

對某些疾病患者而言，最可怕的往往不是身體上的苦痛，而是社會對該疾病的誤解、歧視與偏見，致使病患躲在黑暗角落，諱疾忌醫，無法與常人一般就學、就業。研究者深信大眾若能對病人所遭受的病苦有深入的體悟，能以人溺己溺之胸襟，關懷並接納病人，便能幫助病人走出疾病的陰影。因此研究者在通識中心開設一門「疾病與文化」的課程，介紹癲癇、腦性麻痺、不孕症、過動症、精神病、自閉症與智障、愛滋病和憂鬱症八種常受到社會歧視的疾病，希望能藉由課程的實施，增進學生對疾病的認知，減輕對疾病的偏見與誤解，並對病患有更深的同情與接納。本課程為一學分，採隔週上課，每次兩小時，教師教授該疾病之病因、症狀、治療之知識，並邀請病人與家屬至課堂上與學生分享切身之經驗。經由比較學期初與學期末對學生作的問卷調查結果分析，並輔以修課學生之心得回饋報告進行質性分析，相互佐證本課程之成效。研究結果顯示，在「認知」上，學生於修課後對這八種疾病的病因、症狀、治療方式的正確認知，皆有顯著增加：在「態度」方面，學生對各疾病患者的態度比修課前更正向，對病人的接納程度也有明顯的正向提升。

For patients who suffer from certain chronic diseases， social misunderstanding， discrimination and prejudice against them have caused much more pain than the diseases did. The patients are seldom able to attend school or work happily as normal people. Moreover， they tend to isolate themselves from people and hide in dark corners. If people can realize the suffering those patients have encountered， that will help others to accept and care for them more. ＂Disease， Misunderstanding and Social Prejudice，＂ a course offered by the General Education Center， is designed to introduce eight discriminated chronic diseases-Epilepsy， Cerebral Palsy， Infertility， ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)， Psychosis， Infantile Autism and Mentally Handicapped. AIDS and Melancholia. The major goal of this course is to increase students' correct recognition of these diseases， in order to remove their prejudice and misunderstanding of these patients; then， to help students develop greater sympathy for the patients and accept them. It is a one credit hour course， offering a two-hour class in alternate weeks for one semester. The instructors not only imparted knowledge of the causes， symptoms and therapies of a disease， but also invited some patients or their family members to share their experiences in class. At the beginning of the semester， eight short questionnaires were conducted as pretests. At the end of semester， the same questionnaires were conducted as posttests. Based on comparison of the results from pretests and posttests， and student's feedback reports， we found that most students who attended the course have significantly improved their recognition of the diseases， and changed their attitudes more positively toward patients with these diseases.