Introduction to Disability and Antiableist Health Care

Abstract

Physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians often care for disabled patients, who comprise America’s largest marginalized population. Despite medical students’ and physicians’ discomfort with caring for disabled patients and the pervasiveness of ableism in healthcare, medical education lacks disability-focused education. Kern’s approach to curriculum development and disability community input were used to design a three-part, elective curriculum for first-year medical students. Part one introduced disability models and language. Part two described how to perform a comprehensive history and physical exam for a disabled patient utilizing ADEPT-CARE. Part 3 provided an overview of disability history and the disability rights movement. The curriculum’s goal was to improve students’ attitudes regarding disability health and self-perceived knowledge and confidence in caring for patients with disabilities. The curriculum was evaluated through pre- and post-surveys. Students favorably reviewed the curriculum. 100% of students (n = 21) agreed or strongly agreed that the curriculum improved their knowledge of disability health, increased their perceived confidence in caring for patients with disabilities, and enhanced their medical education. There were no statistically significant differences in students’ attitudes towards patients with disabilities after curriculum completion. Our asynchronous module provides one potential curriculum for increasing pre-clinical medical students’ self-perceived knowledge of disability health.