Prospective Students
This degree program is designed to provide students with knowledge and skills that enable them to better address the bioethics issues arising in biomedical research, clinical medicine and health policy. The degree enhances the student's own background and skill set in health administration, public policy, ministry, teaching, research, hospital ethics committee and IRB service, and health law. Many students enrolled in this program are career professionals in medicine, law, science, or religion, and others who are actively engaged in health care delivery and/or health care administration. Others wishing to add bioethics knowledge to their educational pathways also are enrolled. We seek a broad and diverse community of students, in order to heighten the value of the learning process.
Students employed in health-related fields who undertake master’s-level study in bioethics have found that by certifying their expertise, the MA degree may assist them in changing activities, job titles, or positions, by incorporating bioethics-related activities into their official job descriptions. Students previously employed in other fields have found that the MA degree enhances their expertise and helps to create opportunities within their own profession, or to branch out into other areas.
Students enrolled in the program gain valuable practical experience in bioethics in a variety of ways, including: serving as research assistants to bioethics faculty members; assisting in the educational and research projects undertaken by the Wake Forest University Program in Bioethics, Health, and Society; and undertaking a practicum experience in clinical or research ethics, for example with Wake Forest Medical Center’s Clinical Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board.
The Master of Arts in Bioethics program attracts a broad and diverse group of students who come from a variety of educational, vocational, cultural and geographic backgrounds. A number of MA students already hold higher degrees in medicine, law, nursing, psychology, public health or business and are practicing health care providers (e.g. physicians, nurses, physician assistants, etc.), lawyers, researchers, or health care administrators. Several MA students work in the life sciences, either in clinical, educational, administrative or research settings, and are active in fields like regenerative medicine, neuroscience, cardiology and others. Students also come with a number of undergraduate majors, including biology, philosophy, chemistry, health & exercise science, history, biochemistry, or journalism, and have garnered relevant experiences, such as interning with the National Institutes of Health, training as an EMT, volunteering in health clinics, and more. For the classroom-based program, students commute from all parts of the region, including the Triad, Triangle and Charlotte areas, and are relocating from places all over the country. MA in Bioethics students at Wake Forest have attained a high level of academic achievement, demonstrated a commitment to serving others, and recognized the value of bioethics education and expertise.