A Matter of Trust

Guiding Principles for Patient and Public Engagement in the Educational Missions of Medical Schools

PURPOSE

The purpose of this research was to cocreate with patients and the public a set of evidence-informed guiding principles for their authentic, responsive, ongoing, and sustainable engagement in the mission, goals, curriculum, and delivery of medical education.

METHOD

A set of guiding principles of relevance to medical education was identified from the literature. Eight focus groups with patients and community members representing a wide variety of perspectives were conducted in April and May 2022. Participants reviewed, prioritized, and discussed the principles and described successful engagement, resulting in 8 guiding principles in priority order. A summary report was circulated to participants for feedback. The principles were reviewed and endorsed by senior leaders in the medical school.

RESULTS

The 8 focus groups were attended by 38 people (age range, mid-20s to postretirement; 7 male, 27 female, and 4 unknown gender). Accountability (19%), inclusion (18%), reciprocity (17%), and partnership and shared decision-making (14%) were chosen as the most important principles. Participants want evidence that their contributions are valued and have made a difference. They want the medical school to include and support a diversity of perspectives that reflect the populations being served by the health care system. They want the medical school to invest in building trusting and respectful long-term relationships with patients and the public.

CONCLUSIONS

The guiding principles could be used by medical schools as a starting point to build relationships with their local communities to increase the authentic and sustainable engagement of patients and the public in the educational mission of the medical school.

Harnessing student feedback to transform teachers: Role of emotions and relationships

INTRODUCTION

Feedback is crucial to promote learning and improve performance. However, we lack a nuanced understanding of how medical teachers reflect on and internalise (or not) student feedback (SF). This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how teachers make sense of SF to improve their performance and nurture their personal and professional development.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional qualitative study based on a constructivist paradigm, 14 medical teachers individually drew a Rich Picture (RP) of a feedback experience in which they received informal or formal feedback from students, resulting in a personal or professional change. After the drawing, we interviewed the participants to deepen our understanding of teachers' experiences. We analysed the drawings and interview transcripts using an iterative process of thematic analysis.

RESULTS

SF that culminated in personal or professional change is a highly emotional experience for teachers, often with long-lasting consequences. It may threaten or reassure their self-concept and professional identity, generating feedback avoidance or feedback-seeking behaviour. SF is particularly powerful in transforming teaching practices when teachers feel connected to students through an honest and constructive relationship. Remarkably, some teachers intentionally build relationships with certain (selected) students to get 'qualified' feedback. SF acceptance also increases when teachers are open to receiving feedback and there is an institutional culture that values feedback. Finally, medical teachers believe that formal (planned) feedback is relevant to improve the curriculum, while informal (spontaneous) feedback is important for promoting teachers' personal and professional development.

DISCUSSION

SF has the potential to become a transformative learning experience for teachers. The student-teacher relationship and teachers' emotional reactions affect the way teachers make sense of and internalise SF and enact behavioural change. Understanding the complexity surrounding SF is vital for supporting teachers in seizing opportunities for growth and in nurturing a meaningful relationship with the act of teaching.

A model of contributors to a trusting patient-physician relationship: a critical review using a systematic search strategy

BACKGROUND

The lack of trust between patients and physicians has a variety of negative consequences. There are several theories concerning how interpersonal trust is built, and different studies have investigated trust between patients and physicians that have identified single factors as contributors to trust. However, all possible contributors to a trusting patient-physician relationship remain unclear. This review synthesizes current knowledge regarding patient-physician trust and integrates contributors to trust into a model.

METHODS

A systematic search was conducted using the databases MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and Eric (Ovid). We ran simultaneous searches for a combination of the phrases: patient-physician relationship (or synonyms) and trust or psychological safety. Six-hundred and twenty-five abstracts were identified and screened using pre-defined criteria and later underwent full-text article screening. We identified contributors to trust in the eligible articles and critically assessed whether they were modifiable.

RESULTS

Forty-five articles were included in the review. Patient-centered factors that contributed modifiable promoters of trust included psychological factors, levels of health education and literacy, and the social environment. Physician-centered factors that added to a trusting patient-physician relationship included competence, communication, interest in the patient, caring, the provisioning of health education, and professionalism. The patient-physician alliance, time spent together, and shared decision-making also contributed to trusting relationships between patients and physicians. External contributors included institutional factors, how payments are made, and additional healthcare services.

DISCUSSION

Our model summarized modifiable contributors to a trusting patient-physician relationship. We found that providing sufficient time during patient-physician encounters, ensuring continuity of care, and fostering health education are promising starting points for improving trust between patients and physicians. Future research should evaluate the effectiveness of interventions that address multiple modifiable contributors to a trusting patient-physician relationship.

Assessing supervisor versus trainee viewpoints of entrustment through cognitive and affective lenses: an artificial intelligence investigation of bias in feedback

The entrustment framework redirects assessment from considering only trainees' competence to decision-making about their readiness to perform clinical tasks independently. Since trainees and supervisors both contribute to entrustment decisions, we examined the cognitive and affective factors that underly their negotiation of trust, and whether trainee demographic characteristics may bias them. Using a document analysis approach, we adapted large language models (LLMs) to examine feedback dialogs (N = 24,187, each with an associated entrustment rating) between medical student trainees and their clinical supervisors. We compared how trainees and supervisors differentially documented feedback dialogs about similar tasks by identifying qualitative themes and quantitatively assessing their correlation with entrustment ratings. Supervisors' themes predominantly reflected skills related to patient presentations, while trainees' themes were broader-including clinical performance and personal qualities. To examine affect, we trained an LLM to measure feedback sentiment. On average, trainees used more negative language (5.3% lower probability of positive sentiment, p < 0.05) compared to supervisors, while documenting higher entrustment ratings (+ 0.08 on a 1-4 scale, p < 0.05). We also found biases tied to demographic characteristics: trainees' documentation reflected more positive sentiment in the case of male trainees (+ 1.3%, p < 0.05) and of trainees underrepresented in medicine (UIM) (+ 1.3%, p < 0.05). Entrustment ratings did not appear to reflect these biases, neither when documented by trainee nor supervisor. As such, bias appeared to influence the emotive language trainees used to document entrustment more than the degree of entrustment they experienced. Mitigating these biases is nonetheless important because they may affect trainees' assimilation into their roles and formation of trusting relationships.

'If you had taken the lead…' - a qualitative study of patients with chronic conditions and their perspective in clinical encounters with medical students

OBJECTIVES

To explore what patients with chronic conditions emphasize as important in the patient-medical student conversation, and how the patients' experiences relate to trust.

METHODS

Twenty-one video-recorded sessions of patients' feedback in simulation-based communication courses for medical students were observed, transcribed, analyzed inductively and organized into three themes.

RESULTS

In the patients' feedback, three aspects were emphasized as important relating to trust: a) when the medical student relates medical information to the patient's lifeworld, b) when the student leads the patient throughout the conversation, and c) when the patient gets emotional support from the student. The patients felt that being met this way by the students grows trust and allows them to lean into the uncertainties they experience while still feeling safe.

DISCUSSION

The patients emphasize three aspects of importance in conversations with the medical students that grow trust. We argue that these aspects cannot be found in the traditional authority-led practice but can be found in leadership, which imply empathy and willingness to learn from patients. We suggest that students should learn that to effectively communicate with patients infers such leadership. By doing so, medical students can walk alongside their patients to build a relationship and nurture trust.

Crossroads experiences for promoting self-authorship of clinical medical students: A qualitative survey

BACKGROUND

The capacity of self-authoring one's own beliefs, identity, and relationships is core to many expected outcomes of future health-care professionals. Students' personal and professional development for self-authorship can be promoted by the variety of developmentally effective "crossroads" experiences that they encounter. Identifying the characteristics of the crossroads experiences in clinical rotations can provide a foundation for medical educators to provide an environment that can foster self-authorship.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional qualitative survey was conducted using a researcher developed semi-structured questionnaire which had three open questions and asked medical interns to describe their internship experiences that stimulated their thinking along the self-authorship dimensions of identity, relationships, and ways of knowledge acquisition. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarkes' thematic analysis method.

RESULTS

The survey was completed by 167 medical interns (response rate: 83%). The key features of significant crossroads experiences and their effects were created into six themes: Experiences by being respected and validated; experiences by involvement in patient management; experiences by participation in interactive learning environments; experiences by participation in authentic clinical work environments; experiences by the observation of professional behaviors; experiences through the uniqueness of different specialties.

CONCLUSION

Authentic experiences of patient management in the real world of clinical settings with a high interactive environment have the potential to promote interns' self-authorship development. Educators can support learners by respecting and validating their capacities and by role modeling of professional behaviors.

Nutrition and physical activity in cancer patients: a survey on their information sources

BACKGROUND

Many cancer patients suffer from problems concerning nutrition and physical activity (PA) during and after their treatment. Forwarding reliable health information could help to alleviate severe symptoms. The present study aimed to examine cancer patients' commonly used information sources on nutrition and PA.

METHODS

An anonymous questionnaire was developed and distributed to German cancer patients in different settings. In total, 90 questionnaires have been completed between October 2021 and March 2022. For analysis, descriptive statistics were used and associations between information sources and patients' lifestyle behaviour explored utilising Spearman's Rho, Mann-Whitney U, and Pearson's Chi Square tests.

RESULTS

The cancer patients received information on nutrition and PA most frequently from physicians (70.9%), family and friends (68%) and browsing the internet (61.3%). Half of the patients (51.1%) had questions concerning these topics during the time of their disease. The majority of those patients (81.8%) reported that their questions were answered. The topics were addressed primarily with outpatient oncologists (60.0%) and in rehabilitation clinics (53.3%). Just about half of the patients (55.3%) felt satisfactorily informed on nutrition and PA in their cancer disease, more so if they talked to their oncologist or family physician (Z = - 2.450, p = 0.014 and Z = - 3.425, p = 0.001 resp.).

CONCLUSION

Cancer patients receive information on nutrition and PA predominantly after their initial treatment. Since they might be missing significant information to alleviate severe symptoms during their treatment, the importance of nutrition and PA should be emphasised by clinicians early on in treatment.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Trial Registration Number (May 7, 2021): 2021-2149-Bef.

Inviting patients to identify diagnostic concerns through structured evaluation of their online visit notes

BACKGROUND

The 21st Century Cures Act mandates patients' access to their electronic health record (EHR) notes. To our knowledge, no previous work has systematically invited patients to proactively report diagnostic concerns while documenting and tracking their diagnostic experiences through EHR-based clinician note review.

OBJECTIVE

To test if patients can identify concerns about their diagnosis through structured evaluation of their online visit notes.

METHODS

In a large integrated health system, patients aged 18-85 years actively using the patient portal and seen between October 2019 and February 2020 were invited to respond to an online questionnaire if an EHR algorithm detected any recent unexpected return visit following an initial primary care consultation ("at-risk" visit). We developed and tested an instrument (Safer Dx Patient Instrument) to help patients identify concerns related to several dimensions of the diagnostic process based on notes review and recall of recent "at-risk" visits. Additional questions assessed patients' trust in their providers and their general feelings about the visit. The primary outcome was a self-reported diagnostic concern. Multivariate logistic regression tested whether the primary outcome was predicted by instrument variables.

RESULTS

Of 293 566 visits, the algorithm identified 1282 eligible patients, of whom 486 responded. After applying exclusion criteria, 418 patients were included in the analysis. Fifty-one patients (12.2%) identified a diagnostic concern. Patients were more likely to report a concern if they disagreed with statements "the care plan the provider developed for me addressed all my medical concerns" [odds ratio (OR), 2.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.45-4.87) and "I trust the provider that I saw during my visit" (OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.19-3.71) and agreed with the statement "I did not have a good feeling about my visit" (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.09-2.01).

CONCLUSION

Patients can identify diagnostic concerns based on a proactive online structured evaluation of visit notes. This surveillance strategy could potentially improve transparency in the diagnostic process.

The Clarion Call of the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Medical Education Can Mitigate Racial and Ethnic Disparities

Public health crises palpably demonstrate how social determinants of health have led to disparate health outcomes. The staggering mortality rates among African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinx Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed how recalcitrant structural inequities can exacerbate disparities and render not just individuals but whole communities acutely vulnerable. While medical curricula that educate students about disparities are vital in rousing awareness, it is experience that is most likely to instill passion for change. The authors first consider the roots of health care disparities in relation to the current pandemic. Then, they examine the importance of salient learning experiences that may inspire a commitment to championing social justice. Experiences in diverse communities can imbue medical students with a desire for lifelong learning and advocacy. The authors introduce a 3-pillar framework that consists of trust building, structural competency, and cultural humility. They discuss how these pillars should underpin educational efforts to improve social determinants of health. Effecting systemic change requires passion and resolve; therefore, perseverance in such efforts is predicated on learners caring about the structural inequities in housing, education, economic stability, and neighborhoods-all of which influence the health of individuals and communities.

Social Determinants of Health May Predict End of Life Portable Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment Form Completion and Treatment Selections

BACKGROUND

End of life (EOL) care planning is important for aging adults given the growing prevalence of chronic medical conditions in the US. The Portable Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program promotes communication between clinicians and patients with advanced illness about EOL treatment preferences. Despite growing resources for EOL care, utilization remains unequal based on social determinants of health (SDOH), including race, language, urbanization, and education. We evaluated the relationship between POLST form selections and completion rates and SDOH.

METHODS

Oregon POLST Registry and American Community Survey data from 2013 to 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. POLST form completion rates and selections, and various SDOH, including age, income, insurance status, urbanization, etc. were recorded. Data were merged based on ZIP codes and analyzed using χ² or Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests. Logistic regression was performed.

RESULTS

127,588 POLST forms from 319 ZIP codes were included. POLST form completion rates were highest among urban ZIP codes, and urban registrants more often selected CPR and full treatment. ZIP codes with higher incomes tended to select CPR. ZIP codes with higher rates of private insurance completed POLST forms, and selected CPR and full treatment more frequently. ZIP codes with higher rates of Bachelor's degrees (or higher) completed POLST forms and selected full treatment more frequently.

CONCLUSIONS

Various SDOH-specifically, urbanization, insurance status, income level and educational level achieved-may influence POLST form completion rates and selections. The expanding socioeconomic diversity and growth of urban communities, highlight the need for broader access to EOL planning and POLST.

Reading the Self: Medical Students' Experience of Reflecting on Their Writing Over Time

PURPOSE

To investigate students' experience (over time) with meta-reflection writing exercises, called Signature Reflections. These exercises were used to strengthen reflective capacity, as part of a 4-year reflective writing portfolio curriculum that builds on a recognized strategy for reflection (narrative medicine) and employs longitudinal faculty-mentors.

METHOD

In 2018, the authors conducted 5 focus groups with 18 third-year students from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons class of 2019 to examine students' experience with Signature Reflections. Using an iterative, thematic approach, they developed codes to reflect common patterns in the transcripts, distilled conceptually similar codes, and assembled the code categories into themes.

RESULTS

Three core themes (safe space, narrative experience, mirror of self) and 1 overarching theme (moving through time) were identified. Students frequently experienced relief at having a safe reflective space that promoted grappling with their fears or vulnerabilities and highlighted contextual factors (e.g., trusted faculty-mentors, protected time) that fostered a safe space for reflection and exploration. They often emphasized the value of tangible documentation of their medical school journey (narrative experience) and reported using Signature Reflections to examine their emerging identity (mirror of self). Overlapping with the core themes was a deep appreciation for the temporal perspective facilitated by the Signature Reflections (moving through time).

CONCLUSIONS

A longitudinal narrative medicine-based portfolio curriculum with pauses for meta-reflection allowed students, with faculty support, to observe their trajectory through medical school, explore fears and vulnerabilities, and narrate their own growth. Findings suggest that narrative medicine curricula should be required and sufficiently longitudinal to facilitate opportunities to practice the skill of writing for insight, foster relationships with faculty, and strengthen students' temporal perspectives of their development.

How Do Clerkship Students Use EPA Data? Illuminating Students' Perspectives as Partners in Programs of Assessment

INTRODUCTION

The implementation of programs of assessment based on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) offers an opportunity for students to obtain unique data to guide their ongoing learning and development. Although authors have explored factors that contribute to trust-based decisions, learners' use of assessors' decisions about the level of supervision they need has not been fully investigated.

METHODS

In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews of clerkship students who participated in the first year of our EPA program to determine how they interpret and use supervision ratings provided in EPA assessments. Content analysis was performed using concept-driven and open coding.

RESULTS

Nine interviews were completed. Twenty-two codes derived from previous work describing factors involved in trust decisions and 12 novel codes were applied to the interview text. Analyses revealed that students focus on written and verbal feedback from assessors more so than on supervision ratings. Axial coding revealed a temporal organization that categorized how students considered the data from EPA assessments. While factors before, during, and after an assessment affected students' use of information, the relationship between the student and the assessor had impact throughout.

CONCLUSIONS

Although students reported varying use of the supervision ratings, their perspectives about how assessors and students interact and/or partner before, during, and after assessments provide insights into the importance of an educational alliance in making a program of assessment meaningful and acceptable to learners.

Primary care and suicidality among psychiatric outpatients: The patient-doctor relationship matters

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between the quality of the Patient-Doctor Relationship and suicidality among patients seeking mental health care; specifically, whether patients who perceive having a more positive relationship with primary care physician will have lower levels of suicidality.

METHOD

Cross-sectional population-based study in Greater Vancouver, Canada. One-hundred ninety-seven participants were recruited from three Mental Health Clinics who reported having a primary care physician. Participants completed a survey containing questions regarding items assessing quality of Patient-Doctor Relationship, general psychiatric distress (K10), borderline personality disorder, and suicidality (Suicidal Behaviours Questionnaire-Revised-SBQ-R). Zero-order correlations were computed to evaluate relationships between study variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to control for confounding variables.

RESULTS

The quality of the patient doctor relationship was significantly negatively associated with suicidality. The association between the quality of the patient-doctor relationship and suicidality remained significant even after controlling for the effects of psychiatric symptom distress and borderline personality disorder features.

CONCLUSIONS

The degree to which patients' perceive their primary care physician as understanding, reliable, and dedicated, is associated with a reduction in suicidal behaviors. Further research is needed to better explicate the mechanisms of this relationship over time.

Best Practices for Integrating Medical Students Into Telehealth Visits

Telehealth has become an increasingly important part of health care delivery, with a dramatic rise in telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth visits will continue to be a part of care delivery after the pandemic subsides, and it is important that medical students receive training in telehealth skills to meet emerging telehealth competencies. This paper describes strategies for successfully integrating medical students into telehealth visits in the ambulatory setting based on existing literature and the extensive experience of the authors teaching and learning in the telehealth environment.

Trustworthiness and Professionalism in Academic Medicine

Trustworthiness is the cornerstone professional virtue in the practice of medicine. The authors' goals for this Invited Commentary were to provide an account of the professional virtue of trustworthiness and its historical origins as well as to suggest how trustworthiness in a professional curriculum can be taught and assessed. They identified 2 components of trustworthiness that originate in the work of John Gregory (1724-1773) and Thomas Percival (1740-1804), who invented the ethical concept of medicine as a profession. The first is intellectual trust, the commitment to scientific and clinical excellence. The second is moral trust, the primary commitment of physicians and health care organizations to promote and protect the interest of patients while keeping individual and group interests secondary. Teaching should focus first on the mastery and understanding of the conceptual vocabulary of intellectual and moral trust through a range of formats, including modeling by faculty on how they respect and treat patients and learners. Assessment should be behaviorally based and articulated in increasing, observable, and integrated levels of mastery through training. Medical educators and academic leaders also share the responsibility to inculcate and sustain an organizational culture of professionalism that is respectful, critically self-appraising, accountable, and committed to its learners and to the promotion of physician well-being. These proposals can be used by medical educators and academic leaders to assist learners to become and remain trustworthy physicians.

Interdisciplinary Management of Acute Leukemia Across the Continuum of Care

OBJECTIVE

To describe the interdisciplinary management of acute leukemias across the continuum of care.

DATA SOURCE

Literature review and experiential knowledge.

CONCLUSION

Acute leukemia, including acute myelogenous leukemia, acute promyelocytic leukemia, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, represent a heterogeneous group of hematologic malignancies with complex diagnostic requirements that drive risk-adapted treatment selection. Involvement of clinicians from a variety of specialties and disciplines is required to ensure safe and effective treatment, mitigate adverse events, and maintain or improve quality of life. Patient-centered communication, shared decision-making, and interdisciplinary communication are integral to patient outcomes.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE

Oncology clinicians play a primary role in coordinating the interdisciplinary team and navigating the patient and caregiver experience across the acute leukemia continuum.