Caring for the chronically ill: a clinic for final-year medical students

Abstract

In 2000 the Diabetes Centre and the Medical Oncology Department of St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney established a joint clinic for the teaching of final-year medical students. The clinic was established amid concerns that hospitals are increasingly focused on acute care and have few resources available for teaching about chronic conditions. The clinic aimed to improve both patient care and learning opportunities by engaging students in useful activities with chronically ill patients. The students met with their patients regularly to monitor progress, adjust medication (under supervision) and arrange support services. The students and staff from both units met once a week in a coordination meeting where cases were reviewed and learning issues discussed. Students had informal interactions with medical and allied health staff at other times. Overall the clinic provided a rich learning environment for students with a focus on the development of the integrated skills required in the care of chronically ill people, rather than on the specific medical disciplines involved.

Patients as Teachers, Medical Students as Filmmakers: The Video Slam, A Pilot Study

“…For example, creators of a pilot program at Harvard introduced an integrated clerkship in which students follow patients through the medical system for nine months rather than rotating through different clinics 6,7 ; in other institutions, faculty have changed how they manage clinics, or in some cases they have designed clinics especially for chronic care so that students might observe firsthand how patients with chronic illnesses might be optimally treated. 8 Some schools have introduced programs centered on home visits. At Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, for example, Hunsaker Hawkins and colleagues 9 created the Patient Project in which first-year medical students conduct home visits with the goal of enhancing their understanding of the psychosocial, spiritual, and financial aspects of disease.…”

Conhecimento e habilidades de estudantes de medicina em prevenção de doenças crônicas: uso do exame clínico objetivo estruturado como ferramenta de avaliação

“…Inadvertidamente, em alguns casos a graduação médica, não são ressaltadas as diferenças que existem em relação aos cuidados de doenças agudas e doenças crônicas. Entretanto, é fundamental reconhecer que os conhecimentos, habilidades e atitudes voltados para enfermidades agudas não são diretamente aplicáveis às crônicas (HUGHES C, 2002). O quadro agudo possui como ênfase a doença no paciente e a importância do diagnóstico e tratamento terapêutico adequados; por outro lado, a condição crônica enfatiza o paciente com a doença e a relevância está na avaliação e manejo clínico conduzido em etapas em um planejamento longitudinal (NAIR BR e FINUCANE PM, 2003).…”

Healthcare students’ experiences of an interprofessional, student-led neuro-rehabilitation community-based clinic

“…Interprofessional student-led clinics, provide an important context for health professional students to understand the effectiveness of interprofessional practice while simultaneously learning about the roles of other health professions and providing experiential learning in the context of direct client care (Hughes et al, 2002). Sheu et al (2011) undertook a cross-sectional study with 207 medical, nursing and pharmacy students in a student-led Hepatitis B clinic in the US.…”