Patient representation in New Zealand general practice and rural health case-based teaching: a quality improvement exercise

Abstract

Introduction Healthcare inequity disproportionately affects minority populations in Aotearoa New Zealand. Healthcare providers may contribute to inequity due to their biases. Medical education can unintentionally promote biases by reinforcing stereotypes or limiting exposure to diversity. Teaching staff from the Department of General Practice and Rural Health suggested a need to review current teaching materials to ascertain if they have the potential to contribute to this bias. Aim The aim of this study was to review case-based teaching material to determine its representation of the New Zealand population, and whether there is potential to contribute to implicit bias. Methods Document analysis of 135 cases used to teach fourth- and fifth-year medical students in the Department of General Practice and Rural Health, Otago Medical School was performed. Demographic, clinical and social features of each case were recorded and analysed. Results Cases typically included patient age (129/135, 95.6%), sex (127/135, 94.1%) and occupation status (91/136, 66.9%). Ethnicity (31/135, 23.0%), living situation (55/135, 40.7%), relationship status (57/135, 42.2%) and sexual orientation (52/135, 40.0%) were less frequently defined. Cases typically represented the population majority norms. Discussion Case-based teaching materials require regular review and updating to match population demographics. There is potential to improve representation of diversity, and hence cultural safety, though review and revision of written teaching cases.

Primary health care: walking backwards into the future?

“…Phillips and colleagues 13 interviewed hospice staff on their views of gowns designed for big bodied patients and found they can potentially enhance the care and dignity for these patients as well as making it easier for staff to give respectful care. Moving on to this issue's quality improvement report, Gu and colleagues 14 reviewed clinical medical student case-based teaching material used in general practice teaching at the Otago Medical School (Dunedin). Their aim was to see if it was representative of the NZ population and whether there was potential for implicit bias.…”