RESUMEN

Patient panels are an inspiring, highly rated educational tool to complement course goals and objectives for students in medical education programs. The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges on the ability to successfully host in-person patient panels. These challenges resulted in the need to pivot in-person patient panels to online platforms, while still ensuring the quality and intimacy of patient narratives. In this 12 tips article, we share lessons learned in transitioning patient panels in our health systems science curriculum to an online experience for students enrolled in a pre-clinical medical education program.

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: While there are several curricula using patients as educators, little has been published on how they affect student learning and professional development. OBJECTIVE: To explore what 1st year medical students learn about professional values from a patient-led educational experience and how it affects their professional development. DESIGN: We piloted a pediatric patient and family-led educational session during the molecular medicine course, with the goal of sharing the experience of caring for a child with a chronic illness. Following the session, students were required to submit a written reflection on what they learned and the impact the session had on them. All reflections from one academic year were qualitatively analyzed by two investigators and organized using HyperRESEARCH software. A content analysis approach was used to generate codes and emergent themes. Two theoretical lenses guided the analyses: Arnold's framework on professional values and the lens of professional identity formation, described as a process by which health care professionals "think, act and feel like a physician. RESULTS: Students gained an appreciation of professional values, especially humanism and excellence, and how clinician role models reinforce these values. Reflective writings demonstrated recognition among learners that their identity involved being active participants in health care delivery and not just as passive classroom learners. Students were motivated to study diligently and be patient advocates; some questioned their skills in dealing with ambiguity and with the health-care system, resulting in a sense of helplessness. CONCLUSION: Students learn the importance of professional attributes and of clinician role models through a pediatric family teaching experience. They are motivated, displaying glimpses of their future role as caregivers and patient advocates; however, some also express fear and doubt their own abilities. Based on this, a debriefing session has been introduced to prevent a negative effect on learner self-efficacy.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

INTRODUCTION: Cultural sensitivity training among pharmacy students is required by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, but little data exists on effective practices for teaching these concepts. The goal of this case study was to describe the process and determine if integration of a patient-led Cultural Sensitivity Panel into the required didactic curriculum impacts pharmacy student perceptions of their own cultural competence. DESCRIPTION OF CASE: A special population was defined based on the CAPE competencies requiring students demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to culture, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, spirituality, disability, and other aspects of diversity and identity. Patients representing various special populations, such as veterans, the Deaf and hard of hearing population, the LGBT community, were invited to participate in a Cultural Sensitivity Panel for two consecutive years. Panelists shared information they wish future healthcare professionals understood about the population they represented and participated in a question and answer session. Pre- and post-surveys were conducted to assess the impact of the panel on student perceptions of cultural competence. RESULTS: Over two years, 138 students completed surveys. More than 95% of students agreed or strongly agreed that a cultural sensitivity panel is a worthwhile experience, and that the panel would help them change behaviors that may be culturally insensitive. Student perceptions of their own cultural competence significantly improved between the pre- and post- surveys; ethnicity, age and gender significantly impacted responses (p<.05). Key themes of responses to open-ended questions included learning about effective communication (64%), new resources for diverse patient populations (28%), addressing barriers to care (21%), the importance of patience and empathy (18%), and incorporating a patient's background into their care (18%). EXPLORATION OF CASE IMPACT: Use of a cultural sensitivity panel provides patients with their own voice in discussing barriers to the provision of health care and thus mitigates the inherent bias and limitations of faculty members teaching about cultures and populations they do not represent. CONCLUSION: This novel approach of integrating a Cultural Sensitivity Panel into the didactic curriculum positively impacted student perceptions of their own cultural competence and may improve culturally competent provision of care among pharmacy students.

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Health care systems globally are facing challenges of meeting the growing demand for primary care services due to a shortage of primary care physicians. Policy makers and administrators are searching for solutions to increase the primary care capacity. The effective utilization of nurse practitioners (NPs) has been proposed as a solution. However, organizations utilize NPs in variable capacities. In some settings, NPs serve as primary care providers delivering ongoing continuous care to their patients, referred to as patient panels, whereas in other settings they deliver episodic care. Little is known about why organizations deploy NPs differently. OBJECTIVES: Investigate the NP role in care delivery-primary care providers with the own patient panels or delivering episodic care-within their organizations and understand how work environments affect their role. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from primary care NPs. SETTINGS: The study was conducted in one state in the United States (Massachusetts). Data from 163 primary care organizations was obtained, which employed between one to 12 NPs. PARTICIPANTS: 807 NPs recruited from the Massachusetts Provider Database received mail surveys; 314 completed and returned the survey, yielding a response rate of 40%. METHODS: The survey contained measures of NP role in care delivery and work environment. NP role was measured by an item asking NPs to report if they deliver ongoing continuous care to their patient panel or if they do not have patient panel. The work environment was measured with the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Organizational Climate Questionnaire (NP-PCOCQ). The multilevel Cox regression models investigated the influence of organization-level work environment on NP role in care delivery. RESULTS: About 45% of NPs served as primary care providers with their own patient panel. Organization-level Independent Practice and Support subscale, an NP-PCOCQ subscale, had a significant positive effect on NP role (risk ratio=2.33; 95% CI: 1.06-5.13); with a one unit increase on this subscale, the incidence of the NPs serving as primary care providers with their own patient panel doubled. CONCLUSIONS: NPs can help meet the increasing demand for primary care by taking responsibilities as primary care providers, and organizations can assign NPs their own patient panels. Supporting NP independent practice within organizations promotes NP role as primary care providers. Policy and organizational change focused on promoting NP work environments so NPs can practice as primary care providers can be an effective strategy to increase the primary care capacity.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: To receive adequate training experience, resident panels in teaching clinics must have a sufficiently diverse patient case-mix. However, case-mix can differ from one resident panel to another, resulting in inconsistent training. METHOD: Encounter data from primary care residency clinics at Massachusetts General Hospital from July 2008 to May 2010 (64 residents and ~3800 patients) were used to characterize patients by gender, age, major disease category (both acute and chronic, e.g., Cardio Acute, Cardio Chronic, etc., for a total of 44 disease categories), and number of disease categories. Imbalance across resident panels was characterized by the standard deviation for disease category, patient panel size, and annual visit frequency. To balance case-mix in resident panels, patient reassignment algorithms were proposed. First, patients were sorted by complexity; then patients were allocated sequentially to the panel with the least overall complexity. Patient reassignment across resident panels was considered under 3 scenarios: 1) within preceptor, 2) within a group of preceptors, and 3) across the entire practice annually. RESULTS: were compared with case-mix (pre-July 2012) and post-July 2012. Results. All 3 reassignment algorithms produced significant reductions in standard deviation of either number of disease categories or diagnoses across residents when compared with baseline (pre-July 2012) and actual July 2012 reassignment. Reassignment across the clinic and group provided the best and second best scenarios, respectively, although both came at the cost of initially reduced patient-preceptor continuity. CONCLUSION: Systematically reallocating patient panels in teaching clinics potentially can improve the consistency and breadth of the educational experience. The method in principle can be extended to any target of health care system reform where there is patient or clinician turnover.

Asunto(s)