Minnick Caroline, Soltany Kevin Alexander, Krishnamurthy Sudarshan, Murray Maeve, Strowd Roy, Montez Kimberly
Bowman Gray Center for Medical Education, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
Department of Neurology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
J Clin Transl Sci. 2025 Feb 28;9(1):e61. doi: 10.1017/cts.2025.35. eCollection 2025.
This study aimed to describe medical students' perceptions and experiences with health policy and advocacy training and practice and define motivations and barriers for engagement.
This was a mixed-methods study of medical students from May to October 2022. Students were invited to participate in a web-based survey and optional follow-up phone interview. Surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Phone interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and de-identified. Interviews were coded inductively using a coding dictionary. Themes were identified using thematic analysis.
35/580 survey responses (6% response rate) and 15 interviews were completed. 100% rated social factors as related to overall health. 65.7% of participants felt "very confident" or "extremely confident" in identifying social needs but only 11.4% felt "very confident" in addressing these needs. From interviews, six themes were identified: (1) participants recognized that involvement in health policy and/or advocacy is a duty of physicians; (2) participants acknowledged physicians' voices as well respected; (3) participants were comfortable identifying social determinants of health but felt unprepared to address needs; (4) barriers to future involvement included intimidation, self-doubt, and skepticism of impact; (5) past exposures and awareness of advocacy topics motivated participants to engage in health policy and/or advocacy during medical school; and (6) participants identified areas where the training on these topics excelled and offered recommendations for improvement, including simulation, earlier integration, and teaching on health-related laws and policies.
This study highlights the importance of involvement in health policy and advocacy among medical students and the need for enhanced education and exposure.
本研究旨在描述医学生对健康政策与宣传培训及实践的看法和经历，并确定参与的动机和障碍。
这是一项针对医学生的混合方法研究，时间为2022年5月至10月。邀请学生参加基于网络的调查以及可选的后续电话访谈。使用描述性统计分析调查结果。电话访谈进行了录音、转录并去除了身份标识。访谈采用编码词典进行归纳编码。通过主题分析确定主题。
完成了35份/580份调查问卷回复（回复率6%）以及15次访谈。100%的人认为社会因素与整体健康相关。65.7%的参与者在识别社会需求方面感到“非常自信”或“极其自信”，但只有11.4%的人在满足这些需求方面感到“非常自信”。从访谈中确定了六个主题：（1）参与者认识到参与健康政策和/或宣传是医生的职责；（2）参与者承认医生的声音备受尊重；（3）参与者能够轻松识别健康的社会决定因素，但觉得没有准备好满足需求；（4）未来参与的障碍包括 intimidation、自我怀疑和对影响的怀疑；（5）过去对宣传主题的接触和认识促使参与者在医学院期间参与健康政策和/或宣传；（6）参与者确定了这些主题培训的优势领域，并提出了改进建议，包括模拟、更早融入以及关于健康相关法律和政策的教学。
本研究强调了医学生参与健康政策和宣传的重要性以及加强教育和接触的必要性。
