Document Detail


Learning to cure, but learning to care?
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20872070     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Data-Review    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Utilizing interviews with students and a key administrator, analyses of academic schedules, and observations of courses, labs, and small groups, this study examines if and how elements of the explicit preclinical curriculum may have deleterious effects on medical students' humanitarian attributes, namely empathy. Findings from this case-study of a medical school in the United States suggest that the lack of frequent formal testing in the psycho-social aspects of patient care during the preclinical years, as well as a general reduction in curriculum hours devoted to teaching the social aspects of medicine, may serve as mechanisms behind the diminution of medical students' levels of empathy and other positive attributes as found by previous research. Following the basic tenets of the Testing Effect and the assumption that assessment drives learning, it is argued that a feasible way to maintain and potentially cultivate these traits among medical students, without saturating an overwhelmed medical curriculum, would be to install periodic, formally graded exams into preclinical curriculums that evaluate empathy and the psycho-social aspects of care.
Authors:
Barret Michalec
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article     Date:  2010-09-25
Journal Detail:
Title:  Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice     Volume:  16     ISSN:  1573-1677     ISO Abbreviation:  Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract     Publication Date:  2011 Mar 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-04-12     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9612021     Medline TA:  Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract     Country:  Netherlands    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  109-30     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Delaware, 18 Amstel Hall, 309 Smith, Newark, DE, 19716, USA, bmichal@udel.edu.
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