Open AccessMultimorbidity in family medicine clerkship
Author(s) -
Emily Harrison
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
uwomj/medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2560-8274
pISSN - 0042-0336
DOI - 10.5206/uwomj.v84i2.4272
Subject(s) - medicine , curriculum , family medicine , inclusion (mineral) , population , clinical clerkship , medical school , medical education , psychology , pedagogy , social psychology , environmental health
PURPOSE: To document senior medical students’ experiences in caring for patients with multiple chronic illnesses in family medicine clerkship and explore their attitudes towards the inclusion of this topic in existing curricula.
METHODS: A cohort of third-year medical students from the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario were surveyed following their core family medicine clerkship.
RESULTS: One hundred percent of students surveyed participated in the care of patients with multiple chronic illnesses during their family medicine clerkship. However, only 28% percent reported receiving formal teaching on this topic while 89.5% felt that multimorbidity should be taught at the clerkship level. The majority of students surveyed felt comfortable caring for this patient population.
CONCLUSION: Patients with multiple chronic illnesses are common in family practice. All third-year medical students encountered patients with multimorbidity during their family medicine clerkship. This study contributes to a growing body of literature that suggests the need for a shift in medical education and health care delivery in order to better serve an increasingly complex patient population.