The Experience of Illness module for beginning medical students

Experiences and recommendations from people with spinal cord injury following participation in a disability education session at an allopathic medical school: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Students in half of US medical schools do not receive formal instruction in providing medical care for people with disabilities. To address this gap in training, our medical school developed several strategies, including a session for second year medical students to address communication skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to delivering healthcare for people with disabilities. Here, our objective was to explore perceptions of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) who participated in the session on its content and structure.

METHODS

Qualitative research using a focus group of people with SCI who participated in an educational session for medical students in an LCME accredited allopathic US medical school. A purposive sample of adults with SCI (N = 8) participated in a focus group. Data were analyzed using a six-phase thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Participants favorably viewed the educational session, felt their participation was valuable, and had suggestions for its improvement. Four major themes were identified: (1) session format, content; (2) addressing student discomfort and avoidance behaviors; (3) increasing student knowledge and preparation; and (4): important lessons from discussions of past and role-played doctor-patient interactions.

CONCLUSIONS

First-person input from people with SCI is critical to improve medical education and healthcare provision to the SCI community. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report feedback from stakeholders providing specific recommendations for teaching disabilities awareness to undergraduate medical students. We expect these recommendations to be relevant to the SCI and medical education communities in improving healthcare for people with SCI and other disabilities.

When Illness and Loss Hit Close to Home-Do Health Care Providers Learn How to Cope?

INTRODUCTION

Up to 85% of newly qualified physicians report loss or illness in themselves or a loved one. These experiences can intensify feelings of grief in the professional setting, but the range of formal training that addresses personal illness or loss is unknown. This study aimed to explore interventions that teach health care providers and trainees about personal illness experience.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted by searching three bibliographic databases using the terms "illness," "personal," "education," and synonyms. Article screening was performed in duplicate to identify studies that described an intervention that included teaching or learning on personal experiences with illness or loss for health care providers and trainees.

RESULTS

The search yielded 4168 studies, of which 13 were included. Education most often targeted medical students (54%), resident or attending physicians (31%), and nurses (31%). Other participants included social workers and psychologists. Personal illness was most frequently taught for reflection in the context of palliative care curricula (54%). Only two studies' primary purpose was to teach about coping with grief related to personal experiences. No studies within the scope of our defined methodology described training on how to support colleagues or trainees facing personal illness or loss. Reported outcomes included improved coping skills, decreased stress, and better ability to support bereaving patients.

DISCUSSION

Specific training on personal illness experience is limited, with gaps in continuity of learning, particularly for continuing medical education. Future curricula can equip providers with coping strategies while enabling improved resilience and patient care.

Asian medical students' attitudes towards professionalism

Background: Professionalism is the basis of trust in patient-physician relationships; however, there is very limited evidence focusing on attitudes towards professionalism among medical students. Hence, the main aim of our study was to investigate Malaysian medical students' attitudes towards professionalism with specific emphasis on the comparison between pre-clinical and clinical students. Our secondary aim was to compare the differences in perception of medical students in Malaysia (pre-clinical and clinical) with Asian medical students studying in Dublin, IrelandMethods: This study utilized the Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) instrument which consists of 25 items that represent four skill categories: Doctor-Patient Relationship skills, Reflective skills, Time Management and Inter-Professional Relationship skills. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographic information of students and given the ordinal nature of the data, Mann-Whitney U-tests were used.Results: Overall, students have positive attitudes to all the professionalism items with more than 80% of the students agreeing that each of the professionalism attributes is important or very important. There was evidence of a significant difference between Malaysian pre-clinical and clinical students in relation to 'avoiding derogatory language' only (p = 0.015). When comparing between Malaysian and Dublin Asian students, there was a statistically significant difference in relation to 'show interest in patient as a person' (p < 0.003) for clinical students.Conclusion: Our results point to several curriculum implications such as 1) assessing students' attitudes towards professional attributes is essential when developing the professionalism curriculum, 2) integrating more effective clinical modules early in the curriculum and 3) considering geographical and cultural factors when assessing perception towards professional attributes.

Medical students' perception of professionalism: a qualitative study from Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

Professionalism has emerged as a core competency for the medical professionals globally. However, few studies have been reported from the Gulf region to assess the situation and take steps to promote professionalism.

AIM

To elicit the views of final year medical students, interns, and residents to explore what professionalism meant to them, what problems they encountered, and what can be done to promote professionalism.

METHOD

We adopted qualitative approach including 10 focus group discussions. The proceedings were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed independently by two researchers.

RESULTS

The respondents admitted that that they were deficient in the acquisition of professional values. According to them, professionalism was not taught or assessed. They followed "hidden curriculum". They considered very few teachers as positive role models. The deficiencies could be attributed to negative role modeling by the faculty or deficiencies in the curriculum such as lack of rich clinical experiences, limited interaction with health team, and absence of feedback besides organizational issues.

CONCLUSION

The students' views should be tallied with other sources of evidences. Nevertheless, they have policy implications on faculty recruitment, development, curriculum reform, and an organizational culture that supports professionalism.

Effects of a disability awareness and skills training workshop on senior medical students as assessed with self ratings and performance on a standardized patient case

BACKGROUND

People with disabilities compose one of the largest and fastest growing subgroups of the U.S. population. Disability and rehabilitation issues are not well covered in most North American medical school curricula. This article describes the development and assessment of a 3-hr workshop for medical students on disability skills and awareness.

DESCRIPTION

Fourth-year medical students on a required clerkship participated in the workshop on alternate months. The efficacy of the intervention was measured by a comparison between the participant and control students using a pretest and posttest self-efficacy questionnaire and a one-station Standardized Patient (SP) Clinical Case depicting a hemiplegic patient and a caregiver.

EVALUATION

Factor analysis of the survey yielded 4 subscales: Attitude, Advocacy, Interaction, Obtaining Services. There was a significant difference between the treatment and control group on the advocacy scale and on the SP communication and interstation exercises.

CONCLUSION

A targeted educational intervention can have a positive effect on medical students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward patients with disabilities.