Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 501 Smyth Road, K1H8L6, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Division of General Internal Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Canada.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Sep 11;24(1):988. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05961-7.
Health Advocacy is considered one of the most difficult skills to teach. Many medical learners feel ill-equipped in social competencies and identify it as a significant gap in their medical training. Experiential learning has recently been emerging as a more effective method to teach health advocacy. The Post Graduate Medical Education (PGME) Health Advocacy Day is a new experiential learning curriculum designed to teach important competencies of health advocacy and social accountability to post-graduate medical residents at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada. The objective of this mixed-methods study was to assess resident experiences.
Second-year trainees from all adult residency programs attended the Advocacy Day as part of a mandatory academic day. All participants completed a mandatory pre-and post-session quiz to assess knowledge of key topics before and after the course. We also distributed a voluntary survey to all participants and invited residents to participate in semi-structured interviews to provide feedback on the course. We used descriptive statistics to analyze quiz scores and survey results and conducted a paired t-test of pre and post-test quiz scores. We also performed a thematic analysis of qualitative feedback, specifically survey comments and semi-structured interviews.
One hundred and eighty-three residents participated in the Advocacy Day and 112 (61.2%) completed the post-course survey. Ten residents volunteered to be interviewed. Respondents were generally satisfied by the session and felt it was of good quality. Most residents felt the course enhanced their ability to advocate for individual patients or communities (N = 80; 71.5%) and understand patients and families' lived experience with illness (N = 87; 77.5%). Most residents also felt the course improved their knowledge of the impact of social determinants of health (N = 91; 81.2%) and increased their awareness of local resources that can support patients and their families (N = 88; 78.3%). Visiting community sites in-person and meeting persons with lived experiences were highlighted as the most valuable components of the course.
Experiential learning can be integrated within post-graduate medical curricula to teach health advocacy competencies. Future studies should examine the longitudinal impact of the curricula, to determine whether shifts in perspectives persist over time.
健康倡导被认为是最难教授的技能之一。许多医学学习者觉得自己在社交能力方面准备不足，并认为这是他们医学培训中的一个重大差距。体验式学习最近已成为教授健康倡导的一种更有效的方法。研究生医学教育 (PGME) 健康倡导日是一门新的体验式学习课程，旨在向加拿大渥太华大学的研究生医学住院医师教授健康倡导和社会责任的重要能力。本混合方法研究的目的是评估住院医师的体验。
所有成人住院医师培训计划的第二年学员都参加了倡导日，这是强制性学术日的一部分。所有参与者在课程前后都完成了强制性的预、后测验，以评估课程前后对关键主题的了解。我们还向所有参与者分发了一份自愿调查，并邀请住院医师参加半结构化访谈，以提供对课程的反馈。我们使用描述性统计来分析测验分数和调查结果，并对预测试和后测试测验分数进行了配对 t 检验。我们还对定性反馈进行了主题分析，特别是调查意见和半结构化访谈。
183 名住院医师参加了倡导日，其中 112 名（61.2%）完成了课后调查。10 名住院医师自愿接受采访。受访者对课程总体感到满意，并认为课程质量良好。大多数住院医师认为该课程增强了他们为个别患者或社区倡导的能力（N=80；71.5%），并更好地理解患者和家庭的疾病经历（N=87；77.5%）。大多数住院医师还认为该课程提高了他们对社会决定因素对健康的影响的了解（N=91；81.2%），并增加了他们对可以支持患者及其家庭的当地资源的认识（N=88；78.3%）。实地访问社区场所和与有经验的人会面被强调为课程最有价值的部分。
体验式学习可以纳入研究生医学课程，以教授健康倡导能力。未来的研究应检查课程的纵向影响，以确定观点的转变是否随着时间的推移而持续。
