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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1355473
This article is part of the Research Topic World Health Day 2024: Frontiers in Public Health presents: "My Health, My Right" View all 3 articles

Disability Health in Medical Education: Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Pilot Curriculum at Stanford School of Medicine

Provisionally accepted
Richard W. Sapp Richard W. Sapp *Edmund Lee Edmund Lee Sylvia Bereknyei Merrell Sylvia Bereknyei Merrell Erika Schillinger Erika Schillinger James Lau James Lau Heidi M. Feldman Heidi M. Feldman Cori Poffenberger Cori Poffenberger
  • School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: People with disabilities face significant healthcare disparities due to barriers to accessing care, negative attitudes of providers, and lack of education on disabilities for healthcare professionals. Physicians report discomfort when interacting with patients with disabilities, adding to the disparity, warranting research on medical school education. Objective: Two educational interventions were structured: 1) a brief 2-hour intervention in the mandatory curriculum and 2) a 9-week elective course which included interactions with individuals with disabilities through workshops and partner programs. We predicted that both of these interventions would result in improvements in attitude and empathy towards individuals with disabilities and reduce student anxiety. Methods: During the 2018-2019 academic year, 54 students completed the surveys for the 2-hour intervention and 8 students completed the 2-hour intervention and elective course. Pre-, post-, and delayed post-intervention surveys (3 months after post survey) measured students’ attitudes, using validated surveys on attitudes, empathy and anxiety towards individuals with disabilities. Results: Both educational interventions resulted in improved attitudes toward individuals with disabilities. However, students reported only feeling prepared to care for patients with disabilities after the elective course. The elective course, but not the 2-hour course, significantly decreased student anxiety levels, likely due to more individual time working with individuals with disabilities. Delayed analysis after 3 months showed that both interventions had a lasting impact on attitudes and behavior change when caring for individuals with disabilities. Conclusions: Medical education is effective at improving medical students' attitudes and behaviors towards individuals with disabilities. A 2-hour session can lead to a modest improvement in attitudes. However, more dedicated time and exposure to persons with disabilities results in a greater improvement in students' attitudes, anxiety and preparedness.

    Keywords: Disability, attitudes, Medical students, Education, Medical Education

    Received: 14 Dec 2023; Accepted: 13 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sapp, Lee, Bereknyei Merrell, Schillinger, Lau, Feldman and Poffenberger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Richard W. Sapp, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305-5101, California, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.