Premium
Behavioural sciences and the real world: report of a community interview scheme for medical students
Author(s) -
ORBELL† S.,
ABRAHAM C.
Publication year - 1993
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 - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1993.tb00260.x
Subject(s) - medical education , scheme (mathematics) , psychology , medline , family medicine , medicine , political science , mathematical analysis , mathematics , law
Summary. A community interview scheme was designed to provide preclinical medical students with an opportunity to investigate the role of social and psychological variables in patient care and gain insight into interpersonal aspects of the interview process. Evaluation of the scheme showed that students and community interviewees found their participation valuable. Eighty per cent of interviewees were willing to take part in the scheme in the following year. The strongest predictor of willingness to participate was interviewees' rating of the extent to which they had enjoyed the experience. Students valued the opportunity to meet ‘real people’, to explore social and psychological determinants of health and illness and to develop communication skills. A significant positive change in perceived interviewing competence was observed. It is suggested that the scheme might be further developed by using feedback from interviewees to provide students with evidence of both their own skill development and the benefits of self‐disclosure to the patients involved.