Medical students' attitudes toward patient-centred care: a longitudinal survey

Abstract

Increased authoritarianism in graduating students' attitudes emphasises clearly the need for future research and redesigning communication curricula. Furthermore, the influence of gender and relationship with religion on attitudes towards the doctor-patient relationship should be explored further, in order to eliminate disparities in the provision of patient-centred medical care.

A gender-specific evaluation of a care-oriented curricular change in a Dutch medical school

“…We might be able to answer this question if we could identify modifiable determinants of the cure-directed tendency. Researchers who detected similar trends as students progress through the medical curriculum, have pointed to the influence of role modelling of practising doctors and teachers, the hidden curriculum (what is taught but not documented) and the null curriculum (what is documented but not taught), and cultural influences as sources of potentially elitist and paternalistic attitudes and behaviours in students (Tsimtsiou et al 2007). As students progress through the curriculum, their initial idealism, reflected in empathy and acknowledgement of the psychosocial context of health and disease, appears to be increasingly eroded due to the above influences.…”

“…This may be related to Western culture being more accepting of women discussing feelings as opposed to men (Tsimtsiou et al 2007). However, in our study both the female and the male students show the same trend towards cure orientation.…”

“…They are also equally unaffected by the curriculum change. Others have also reported attenuation of gender differences in the final years of the undergraduate medical curriculum, due to female students incorporating cure-and doctor-centred attitudes more quickly than male students (Tsimtsiou et al 2007). However, since our data were limited to third and fourth years in a 6-year curriculum, we can neither support nor refute this supposition.…”

“…In this article, we examined the effects of such a curricular intervention in the third-year of a 6-year medical curriculum by measuring changes in students' views of the attributes of the ideal doctor. We also examined whether gender affected care orientation, because female students have been shown to be generally more care and patient oriented, particularly in the early years of their studies (Tsimtsiou et al 2007). …”

Impacto da “Disciplina Relação Médico-Paciente” sobre Atitudes Centradas no Paciente

“…It should be highlighted that this contact is a special process of human interaction comprising significant dimensions of the clinical practice that includes technical, humanistic and ethical knowledge. Notably, high attention has been placed in the development of communication skills [10][11][12] .…”