Document Detail


Attitude change during medical school: a cohort study.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  15107086     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
BACKGROUND: Attitudes influence behaviour. Developing and maintaining proper attitudes by medical students can impact on the quality of health care delivered to their patients as they assume the role of doctors. There is a paucity of longitudinal research reports on the extent to which students' attitude scores shift as they progress through medical school. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the change in attitude scores of a large student cohort as they progressed through medical school. Whether student gender is related to attitude change was also investigated. METHOD: Medical students from 3 consecutive classes (1999-2001) participated in this study. Students completed 2 instruments that included the Attitudes Toward Social Issues in Medicine and an in-house tool referred to as the Medical Skills Questionnaire. The instruments were administered at 3 milestones during the course of medical school training (entry, end of preclinical training and end of clerkship). RESULTS: Reliability estimates for total (0.82-0.91) and subscale (0.41-0.81) attitudinal scores were in the acceptable range. Multivariate analyses of variance of mean attitudinal scores indicated a persistent decline in several attitude scores as students progressed through the medical educational programme. Females demonstrated higher attitude scores than males. CONCLUSIONS: As students progress through medical school their attitude scores decline. The reasons for the shift in attitude scores are not clear but they may relate to a ceiling of high attitude scores at entry, loss of idealism and the impact of the unintended curriculum. Further study of the impact of medical education on student attitudes is warranted.
Authors:
Wayne Woloschuk; Peter H Harasym; Walley Temple
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Medical education     Volume:  38     ISSN:  0308-0110     ISO Abbreviation:  Med Educ     Publication Date:  2004 May 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2004-04-26     Completed Date:  2004-05-27     Revised Date:  2004-11-17    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7605655     Medline TA:  Med Educ     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  522-34     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. woloschu@ucalgary.ca
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Attitude of Health Personnel*
Clinical Competence / standards
Cohort Studies
Curriculum
Education, Medical, Undergraduate*
Female
Humans
Male
Questionnaires
Reproducibility of Results
Sex Factors
Students, Medical / psychology*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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