A Simple Disabilities Curriculum Improves Student Awareness of Disabilities

Learners sometimes struggle to communicate and empathize with patients with disabilities. Possible explanations for this include lack of access and exposure, emotional immaturity, and knowledge deficits. This often leads to a perception that disabilities lie outside the scope of primary care. We constructed a disabilities curriculum and embedded it within our existing third year curriculum. This curriculum is different from others because of the hands-on component in which the students are paired with a patient with a disability, the goal being to help patients transition successfully from pediatric to adult care. The disabilities curriculum also requires the students to listen to a lecture describing the healthcare challenges facing persons with disability. The curriculum also includes a video showing proper etiquette toward patients with disabilities in medical environments. Finally, the students together visit the home of a young person with disabilities. The students complete the validated “Medical Student Attitudes toward Persons with Disabilities” survey before and after the curriculum is completed. We compare those responses with another institution where the curriculum is not offered.