Malik Mohammad, Tyson Leanne, Bryant Pauline, Patel Payal, Young Richard, Semlyen Joanna
Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Milton Keynes University Hospital, Milton Keynes, UK.
Med Educ. 2025 May;59(5):531-539. doi: 10.1111/medu.15562. Epub 2024 Nov 3.
Research shows that medical students are graduating with inadequate teaching on diverse patients and insufficient experience of working with diverse patient groups. The inclusion of patients from diverse groups is necessary in healthcare teaching to ensure medical students are adequately prepared for practice. In this study, we explored the perspectives of General Practitioner (GP) tutors on the recruitment of diverse volunteer patients for medical student primary clinical care placements. In particular, we focused on the current representation of diverse volunteer patients, barriers affecting their inclusion and recommendations to help with this.
Focus groups were carried out with GP tutors involved in the recruitment of volunteer patients from one region in the United Kingdom. Transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis.
Participants acknowledged the importance of ensuring that medical students have clinical experience in assessing and managing patients from diverse populations, but most did not actively think about the diversity of the patients they were recruiting. Instead, recruitment was driven by the need to cover the curriculum and teaching requirements. To ensure that students' learning was not diminished and recognising time was a significant factor, participants automatically discounted certain patients from being a volunteer patient. They acknowledged that they did not feel comfortable identifying patients based on their demographics and were more likely to invite patients who had been volunteer patients before.
Suggested solutions to overcome the factors affecting the recruitment of diverse patients are presented. Patient populations will continue to become more diverse, and therefore, medical schools must prepare their students for this and encourage GP tutors to make a conscious effort to recruit diverse patient volunteers for teaching.
研究表明，医学生毕业时接受的关于不同患者的教学不足，且与不同患者群体合作的经验也不够。在医疗教学中纳入来自不同群体的患者对于确保医学生为临床实践做好充分准备至关重要。在本研究中，我们探讨了全科医生（GP）导师对于招募不同的志愿者患者参与医学生初级临床护理实习的看法。我们特别关注了不同志愿者患者的当前构成、影响他们参与的障碍以及有助于解决此问题的建议。
我们与参与从英国一个地区招募志愿者患者的全科医生导师进行了焦点小组讨论。使用主题分析法对文字记录进行了分析。
参与者承认确保医学生具备评估和管理来自不同人群患者的临床经验很重要，但大多数人并未积极考虑他们所招募患者的多样性。相反，招募工作是由满足课程和教学要求的需求驱动的。为确保学生的学习不受影响，同时认识到时间是一个重要因素，参与者自动排除了某些患者成为志愿者患者的可能性。他们承认基于人口统计学特征识别患者让他们感到不自在，并且更有可能邀请之前曾是志愿者患者的人。
我们提出了克服影响招募不同患者的因素的建议解决方案。患者群体将继续变得更加多样化，因此，医学院校必须让学生为此做好准备，并鼓励全科医生导师有意识地努力招募不同的患者志愿者参与教学。
