Medical Student, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Resident Physician, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Med Educ Online. 2021 Dec;26(1):1984177. doi: 10.1080/10872981.2021.1984177.
Firearm violence is a unique public health crisis in the USA (US). A majority of U.S. physicians believe they should discuss firearm safety with patients. However, little education on firearm injury prevention and counseling exists in medical school. We sought to address this gap by creating a curriculum on firearm violence as a part of a required preclinical medical school course focused on health policy issues.
The Kerns 6-step model for curriculum development was used to define the problem and assess learner needs. The two-hour small group session was co-authored by a student and faculty member to address the course theme of health policy as applied to firearm violence. The Issue-Attention Cycle, history of firearm policy, and US politics were incorporated from published literature, with a patient counseling role-play added in 2019.
The 'Current Case in Health Policy - Firearm Violence' small group was implemented in 2018 and 2019 for all first-year medical students. Of the 2018 student evaluations, 57% selected this small group as the most valuable in the course. In a follow-up survey in 2020, 78% of the respondents agreed that they felt more confident counseling patients on firearm safety following the role-play.
Students broadly endorsed the incorporation of firearm policy and counseling skills into medical education. This curriculum can be adapted for learners at all stages of training, especially given the limited exposure to this topic in medical education.
枪支暴力是美国(美国)特有的公共卫生危机。大多数美国医生认为他们应该与患者讨论枪支安全问题。然而,医学院校在枪支伤害预防和咨询方面的教育很少。我们试图通过创建一个关于枪支暴力的课程来解决这一差距,该课程是一门针对健康政策问题的基础医学学校必修课程的一部分。
采用 Kerns 六步课程开发模型来确定问题并评估学习者的需求。这个两小时的小组课程由学生和教师共同撰写,以解决课程主题,即应用于枪支暴力的健康政策。从已发表的文献中纳入了“问题关注周期”、枪支政策历史和美国政治,并在 2019 年增加了患者咨询角色扮演。
2018 年和 2019 年,所有一年级医学生都参加了“当前健康政策问题-枪支暴力”小组课程。在 2018 年的学生评估中,57%的学生选择这个小组课程是课程中最有价值的。在 2020 年的后续调查中,78%的受访者同意他们在角色扮演后对为患者提供枪支安全咨询更有信心。
学生普遍支持将枪支政策和咨询技能纳入医学教育。鉴于医学教育中对这一主题的接触有限,该课程可以适应各个培训阶段的学习者。