BackgroundIn changing higher education environments, medical educators are increasingly challenged to prepare new doctors to care for ageing populations. The Depth of Field: Exploring Ageing resource (DOF) uses photographs, reflective questioning prompts, older adults’ narratives and collaborative dialogue to foster anticipatory reflection or ‘preflection’ in medical students prior to their first geriatric medicine clinical placement. The aim of this research is to explore whether photographs, narratives and small group collaborative dialogue fosters reflective learning, enhances reflective capacity and has the potential to shift medical students’ attitudes towards caring for older adults.MethodsThis study used a mixed method evaluation design, measuring attitudes using pre and post questionnaire responses and individual written reflections drawn from 128 second year medical students, exploring their perceptions toward older adults.ResultsQuantitative and qualitative data indicated that the DOF session generated reflective learning that resulted in positive shifts in medical students’ perceptions towards older adults. The qualitative reflections were captured in four main themes: the opportunity provided to Envision working with older adults; the Tension created to challenge learners’ misinformed assumptions, and the work of Dismantling those assumptions, leading to Seeing older people as individuals.ConclusionsThese findings highlight how visual and narrative methodologies can be used as an effective reflective learning tool to challenge medical students’ assumptions around ageing and how these may influence their care of older adults.
Integrating co-produced humanities-based pedagogy into patient and workforce education is of growing interest. The aim of our Depth of Field: Exploring Stroke Recovery project grew from a strong commitment to use patients' lived experiences as a voice to educate new stroke patients and the health professional staff who will care for them. The aim of the initial Quality Improvement project at a West Australian Stroke Rehabilitation Unit (SRU) was to co-produce a reflective learning resource with stroke patients and their families to help navigate the stroke recovery journey. A series of artefacts (documentary-style photographs, audio-narrated vignettes, MRI images and poetry) were collected from four stroke patients and their families at differing stages of recovery over 12 months as they recounted the honest and raw reality of what life is really like following a stroke. These artefacts were used in a pilot qualitative project to explore new stroke patients, their families and SRU health professional staff perceptions towards the artefacts in order to inform the final educational resource. These findings enhance our understandings of how we can use art and patient (healthcare consumers) voice to widen the lens of stroke recovery and provides a valuable template to co-produce peer-to-peer and health professions education reflective learning resources to promote more human- centred approaches to care.
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