Simulation-based holistic education in physiotherapy interns to increase empathy toward older adults and individuals with disabilities

Abstract

Background The proportion of older adults and individuals with disabilities in the general population increases each year. Thus, clinical clerkships designed for physiotherapy interns should provide more than simply knowledge and skills. For such interns to be able to handle the requirements of their future jobs, clerkships must enable them to develop empathy and positive attitudes toward patients. This study investigated the effect of simulation-based, holistic health-care education on physiotherapy interns’ empathy, attitudes, and knowledge. Methods A parallel-group design. Thirty physiotherapy interns from a medical institution were enrolled as participants, with experimental and control groups each comprising 15 participants. Both groups received standard clinical training. However, the experimental group received an additional 3.5 h of simulation-based holistic health-care education. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy, Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale, the Attitudes Towards the Elderly Scale, the Knowledge About Aging Scale, Knowledge of the Situation of Older People Scale, Perceptions of Working with Older People Scale, and Care Willingness Scale were used in a pretest and posttest. Results After the intervention period, we observed substantial between-group differences of 6.4 points on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (p = 0.001), 7.7 points on Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (p = 0.002), 3.5 points on the Attitudes Toward the Elderly Scale (p = 0.002), 2.5 points on Knowledge About Aging (p = 0.055), 4.5 points on the Knowledge of the Situation of Older People Scale (p < 0.001), and 2.1 points on Perceptions of Working with Older People Scale (p = 0.046). Conclusion Simulation-based, holistic health-care education can significantly improve the empathy, knowledge, and attitudes of physiotherapy interns.

The Effect of Geriatric Nursing Course on Determining Attitudes Towards the Elderly

“…In the evaluation made before and after the training by giving lessons, group work, videos, and case studies to nursing students in the course content, it was determined that there were significant improvements in the Kogan attitudes toward old people scale 21 . It has been determined that simulation-based holistic training given to physiotherapy trainees increases their positive attitude towards the elderly 22 . Studies in our country and other countries suggest that geriatric nursing courses increase attitudes towards old age in students.…”

Tolerance for Ambiguity: Correlations With Medical and Physical Therapy Student Traits and Experiences Within the Learning Environment

“…A number of medical education programs already incorporate curricular elements 38 and experiential learning programs [39][40][41] to help medical students increase this capacity. PT education programs designed to cultivate student empathy [42][43][44] may likewise yield enhancements in perspective taking. An interesting direction for future educational research is whether cultivation of perspective-taking skills could be a leverage point for influencing student TFA during the course of health care training.…”