Educating health science students about disability: Teachers’ perspectives on curricular gaps

Peiris‐John, Roshini; Jain, Neera R.; Hogan, Amy; Ameratunga, Shanthi

doi:10.1016/j.dhjo.2020.100985

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In turn, PwD may feel inferior and inadequate compared to people without disabilities, reinforcing their exclusion from full participation in society (Hayward et al., 2019; Marrocco & Krouse, 2017; United Nations General Assembly, 2018). Therefore, to avoid such negative consequences, and to better serve patients with disabilities, it is of primary importance to build adequate positive attitudes towards disability across healthcare professionals early in their career development, that is, while they are still undergraduate students (Peiris‐John et al., 2020). According to the functional symbolic interaction theory, people appear to build their identities through interaction with others, and frequent contact may help people to co‐create a social reality that embraces PwD (Fletcher & Birk, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards people with disabilities across different healthcare undergraduate students: A cluster analysis approach

Bania,

Gianniki,

Charitaki

et al. 2023

Physiotherapy Res Intl

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background and PurposeNegative attitudes towards disability amongst healthcare professionals endanger social inclusion of people with disabilities (PwD). This study aimed to investigate the attitude of undergraduate healthcare students of various disciplines towards PwD, including specific aspects of their attitude.MethodsWe assessed the attitudes of university students, including physiotherapy, speech therapy, nursing, social work and medical students, through the Greek Interaction with Disabled Person Scale (IDPS) in a survey. Data were analysed using a two‐step clustering technique.ResultsFour hundred‐eighty undergraduate healthcare students (21.4 ± 5.3 years‐old; 135 males, 345 females) were recruited. Two‐step cluster analysis identified three homogenous subgroups labelled Least positive attitude (42.3%), Moderately positive attitude (26.9%), and Most positive attitude (30.8%) groups. Τhe main differences in healthcare students' attitudes between the three distinct groups appeared to be in feelings of sympathy, fear and susceptibility towards disability, suggesting that these aspects of attitude needed to be primarily addressed. Results also revealed that females, being in higher semester/year of studies, having completed a clinical module with PwD and having frequent contact with PwD were related to more positive attitudes.ConclusionTaking into account that the majority of the healthcare students' sample yielded least and moderately positive attitudes, towards PwD, further actions should be taken for promoting more positive attitudes towards disability. A social model in teaching to increase student's awareness of PwD and skills to work with these people, having PwD themselves teaching such modules, focussing on positive experiences and reminding the students of the benefits of having positive attitudes towards PwD, as well as promoting ways to increase the contact of healthcare students with PwD (such as teaching in co‐operation with organisations of PwD or finding alternative clinical placements with PwD), can be beneficial in promoting more positive attitudes towards disability.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards people with disabilities across different healthcare undergraduate students: A cluster analysis approach

Bania,

Gianniki,

Charitaki

et al. 2023

Physiotherapy Res Intl

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1 Most schools/colleges of pharmacy core curricula provide students with only a brief introduction to patients with disabilities, which is usually through didactic content. [5][6][7][8] While these brief introductions are helpful, pedagogical approaches do not provide comprehensive content for mastery of skills and strategies for providing accessible health care services to patients with disabilities. 5 Student pharmacists would benefit from additional education and/or training specifically related to patients with disabilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Call to Integrate Content Related to Disabilities Into Contemporary Pharmacy Curricula

Blakely

2022

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Including educational content on disability in HP education has been shown to improve attitudes of HP towards disabled people [16,21,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. International studies (i.e., Australia, NZ, Hong Kong) have explored optimal and innovative ways to teach HP students about disability [9,14,16,34,35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Someone Like Anyone Else”: A Qualitative Exploration of New Zealand Health Professional Students’ Understanding of Disability

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: One in four New Zealanders identify as disabled. Disabled people, including Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand (NZ)), experience health disparities. Systemic and individual health professional (HP) biases are factors that may affect health outcomes. Disability education is a means for improving attitudes and behaviors towards disabled people. The objective of this study was to explore NZ HP students’ understanding of disability and health-related concepts. Methods: HP students from one tertiary institution in NZ were interviewed through Zoom video call about their understanding of disability and health. A relativism paradigm and contextualism epistemology (underpinned by the socio-ecological model) shaped the reflexive thematic analysis. Transcripts were analyzed at a deductive and latent level. Results: Nine HP participants, from different professional courses and cultural backgrounds, were interviewed. Three main themes influenced participants’ understanding of disability: life experiences, professional education, and societal exposure. Participants who had more experience with disabled people had a deeper and more nuanced appreciation of the challenges disabled people face in accessing health services and obtaining equitable health outcomes. Cultural background also influenced the participants’ understanding of disability. Participants preferred more experiential learning methods to improve their knowledge of disability concepts. Lastly, expectations of inclusion are determined by observing social norms. Conclusion: Participants reported learning just a few models of disability. The HP students predominantly came from a perspective of ensuring equality rather than equity. There was limited recognition of the systemic biases that exist within multiple social determinants and how these perpetuate health inequities for disabled people. A socio-ecological consideration of disability throughout the curricula, self-reflection, acknowledging systemic bias, and proactively including disabled people as HP students and teachers are potential means for addressing health inequities.

show abstract

Educating health science students about disability: Teachers’ perspectives on curricular gaps

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

Attitudes towards people with disabilities across different healthcare undergraduate students: A cluster analysis approach

Attitudes towards people with disabilities across different healthcare undergraduate students: A cluster analysis approach

Call to Integrate Content Related to Disabilities Into Contemporary Pharmacy Curricula

“Someone Like Anyone Else”: A Qualitative Exploration of New Zealand Health Professional Students’ Understanding of Disability

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About