Introducing medical students to psycho‐oncology

A weekly three‐hour interactive small group seminar held for four weeks exposes first‐year medical students to contemporary issues relative to the psychosocial care of the oncology patient. Learning objectives include identifying the psychosocial trajectory of patients, a review of ethical considerations, identification of rehabilitation goals and exploration of coping mechanisms to deal with burn‐out. Learning activities include group discussion, video, in vivo discussions with cancer patients and oncologists as well as clinical shadowing experiences with the interdisciplinary team. Student evaluations of this format indicate they appreciate the multi‐modal approaches which engage them emotionally and keep their learning experiential. The mini‐module encourages students to explore the possibility of considering oncology as a field of speciality as well as identifying skills translatable to other life‐threatened populations.