A qualitative study of the impact of a dementia experiential learning project on pre-medical students: a friend for Rachel

Abstract

Background With Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias affecting approximately 7 million people in the United States, comprehension of the multitude of issues facing individuals with dementia and their families and compassion for them are essential components of good healthcare. The service learning program, A Friend for Rachel , was developed in 2011 to train pre-medical students about dementia and give them sustained exposure to people with dementia to foster understanding and compassion and decrease stigma,. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the program on pre-medical students. Methods Since 2011, 101 students participated in A Friend for Rachel . They were required to write weekly reflections about their interactions with their friends living with dementia. Each study author read these reflections to identify major recurrent themes. The authors discussed the themes and came to consensus. The reflections were then reread to analyze for sub-themes. Results Analysis of students’ reflections exposed five major themes: learnings about dementia, learnings about caregiving, their own experienced emotions, impact on career choice and learnings about good medicine, and impact on life. The reflections demonstrated appreciation of the issues raised by dementia, empathy for individuals living with dementia and their families, and comfort with people with dementia. The reflections also demonstrated how the program had a positive impact on the personal lives of the students. Conclusions Through experiencing a sustained relationship with a person living with dementia, A Friend for Rachel allows pre-medical students to re-evaluate their beliefs about dementia and appreciate the need for compassionate care for people with dementia. A Friend for Rachel also provides students with the opportunity to examine their personal lives and goals.

Preferences of newly qualified healthcare professionals for working with people with dementia: a qualitative study

“…Experiences that increased participant's confidence or competency, their understanding of how they can make a difference to patients, and appreciation of positive interactions with people with dementia helped to increase preferences and therefore, add to possible mechanisms of influence. There was evidence that TFD may stimulate interest, in line with previous research for the positive influence of dementia educational interventions [15][16][17]. This indicates that interventions that aim to improve knowledge, attitudes and confidence may also influence preferences and therefore offer a way effectively educate and increase preferences.…”

“…Potential factors associated with preferences for working with people with dementia include positive associations with female gender, older students, and positive ageism; and characteristics of the work such as communication and emotional challenges [14]. Additionally, evaluations of undergraduate dementia education interventions provide evidence that they may positively influence preferences, however, they have not to date explored the mechanisms behind this influence [15][16][17].…”

Comparison of attitudes towards persons with dementia, knowledge of dementia and ageism amongst students in Taiwan and Japan: A cross‐sectional study

“…Participation in an intergenerational service‐learning programme called Opening Mind through Arts has also helped improve students’ attitudes towards older adults with dementia . Furthermore, in the “A Friend for Rachel” programme that was developed recently, undergraduate students help people in early‐stage dementia to continue to enjoy their interests, remain active, develop new relationships and avoid isolation . The humanistic approach developed by these non‐clinical art‐centred programmes should be prioritised in future patient care …”

Dementia stigma reduction (DESeRvE) through education and virtual contact in the general public: A multi-arm factorial randomised controlled trial

“…It was also suggested that greater contact with people with dementia is associated with changes in attitudes (Cheston et al, 2019) and a lower level of stigma (Kane et al, 2018). However, there has been a limited number of intervention studies utilizing these approaches (Cheng et al, 2011;Goldman & Trommer, 2019) and limited evidence for or consensus about what the most effective approaches are Werner, 2014).…”