Dixon, H, Povall, A, Ledger, A et al. (1 more author) (2021) Medical students’ experiences of health inequalities and inclusion health education. The Clinical Teacher, 18 (5). pp. 529-534. ISSN 1743-4971
Abstract
Background
Inclusion health groups experience a significantly larger burden of morbidity and mortality than the general public. Despite this, undergraduate medical education is often limited in its approach to inclusion health curricula, leaving students disengaged and lacking understanding.
Methods
We conducted two research studies to explore medical students’ experiences of inclusion health education. All participants were studying medicine at the University of Leeds at the time of data collection. We gathered experiences of both compulsory and elective inclusion health education via semi-structured interviews. Interview responses were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically.
Findings
We identified several key findings across the two studies.
Firstly, medical students felt unprepared to work with inclusion health groups.
Further to this, medical students have a preference for interactive teaching and learning in inclusion health education.
Finally, encountering inclusion health groups by chance (on placement) or choice (optional initiatives) present different opportunities.
Discussion and Conclusion
Our research suggests that simply being exposed to inclusion health groups through lectures and on placement is not considered sufficient by medical students, and in fact can lead to the perpetuation of misinformation and stigma.
Participants perceived that optional initiatives or ‘choice encounters’ had profoundly positive impacts on attitudes and interest, particularly when there were opportunities to learn directly from individuals with lived experience of exclusion. We suggest that a flipped classroom approach to inclusion health education along with integrated experiential learning would provide medical students with comprehensive and patient-focused learning opportunities.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. The Clinical Teacher published by Association for the Study of Medical Education and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) > Leeds Institute of Medical Education > Research (LIME) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Sep 2021 14:59 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:46 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/tct.13388 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178069 |