Gary Anna J, Birmingham Erin E, Jones Laurie B
Department of Pediatrics, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE 68178; Department of Pediatrics, Phoenix Children's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ 85016, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE 68178; Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
Educ Health (Abingdon). 2017 May-Aug;30(2):163-168. doi: 10.4103/efh.EfH_180_15.
Breastfeeding education should be incorporated routinely into medical school curricula. Despite strong evidence supporting exclusive breastfeeding of infants, lack of physician education has continued to undermine the practice of breastfeeding. Protecting and supporting breastfeeding should be a public health priority as it has the potential to save billions of dollars in health care and also provide the most benefit to the newborn infant. The purpose of this article was to evaluate how the United States undergraduate medical institution incorporates breastfeeding medicine into its curriculum and to suggest modifications that will improve breastfeeding education at all undergraduate medical institutions.
The authors performed an in-depth review of the undergraduate medical curriculum at the United States medical institution. Course requirements and lectures were compared with the 12 knowledge-based and 12 skill-based competencies that the authors suggest all medical students should possess. In addition, the authors sent out an electronic survey to 600 medical students at the same institution to assess current students understanding and comfort with basic breastfeeding topics.
Students in the preclinical years are only learning 3 of the 12 knowledge-based competencies and 1 of the 12 skill-based competencies. Students in the clinical years are learning 5 of the 12 knowledge-based competencies and 9 of the 12 skill-based competencies. Survey results showed that the majorities of medical students were not comfortable with basic breastfeeding medicine and guidance.
The authors recommend several curriculum changes to advance breastfeeding education. A more targeted breastfeeding curriculum in medical education will help to improve physician knowledge, practice patterns, and confidence in breastfeeding management.
母乳喂养教育应常规纳入医学院课程。尽管有强有力的证据支持婴儿纯母乳喂养，但医师教育的缺失持续削弱母乳喂养的实践。保护和支持母乳喂养应成为公共卫生优先事项，因为它有可能节省数十亿美元的医疗保健费用，并且对新生儿最有益。本文的目的是评估美国本科医学院校如何将母乳喂养医学纳入其课程，并提出改进所有本科医学院校母乳喂养教育的修改建议。
作者对美国医学院校的本科医学课程进行了深入审查。将课程要求和讲座与作者建议所有医学生应具备的12项基于知识的能力和12项基于技能的能力进行了比较。此外，作者向同一院校的600名医学生发送了电子调查问卷，以评估当前学生对基本母乳喂养主题的理解和熟悉程度。
临床前阶段的学生仅学习了12项基于知识的能力中的3项和12项基于技能的能力中的1项。临床阶段的学生学习了12项基于知识的能力中的5项和12项基于技能的能力中的9项。调查结果显示，大多数医学生对基本的母乳喂养医学和指导并不熟悉。
作者建议对课程进行多项修改以推进母乳喂养教育。医学教育中更具针对性的母乳喂养课程将有助于提高医师在母乳喂养管理方面的知识、实践模式和信心。
