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Teaching patient wellness to first‐year medical students: the impact on future ability to perform the history of present illness
Author(s) -
Madray Heather,
Pfeiffer Carol A,
Ardolino Anthony
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2923.2000.00459.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , medical education , competence (human resources) , medical school , class (philosophy) , medical history , psychology , medicine , disease , pedagogy , social psychology , pathology , artificial intelligence , computer science
Objectives Curriculum innovations to improve clinical skills have been implemented at many American medical schools. A current curricular change at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine involves teaching wellness to students in the first year rather than the more traditional focus on disease processes. It is unknown, however, if focusing on wellness detracts from students’ future ability to perform the history of present illness (HPI) which requires students to focus on disease processes. Design The current study examined this issue by comparing two cohorts’ clinical skills ( n =156), with one class participating in a traditional curriculum during their first year and the other in a revised curriculum teaching wellness during the first year. Each class was evaluated at the beginning of their second year to determine their level of clinical competence. Setting University of Connecticut School of Medicine Subjects Second‐year medical students. Results Analyses suggested that teaching wellness did not detract from future ability to perform an HPI, and in fact students taught wellness had significantly higher history‐taking scores. Conclusions Curricular innovations which stress wellness and prevention early in medical education do not detract from and may enhance students’ ability to perform the history of present illness later during medical training.