Strategies and interventions for the involvement of real patients in medical education: a systematic review

Abstract

Objectives There is increasing emphasis on encouraging more active involvement of patients in medical education. This is based on the recognition of patients as ‘experts’ in their own medical conditions and may help to enhance student experiences of real‐world medicine. This systematic review provides a summary of evidence for the role and effectiveness of real patient involvement in medical education. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, ERIC, PsychINFO, Sociological Abstracts and CINAHL were searched from the start of the databases to July 2007. Three key journals and reference lists of existing reviews were also searched. Articles published in English and reporting primary empirical research on the involvement of real patients in medical education were included. The synthesis of findings is integrated by narrative structured in such a way to address the research questions. Results A total of 47 articles were included in the review. The majority of studies reported patients in the role of teachers only; others described patient involvement in assessment or curriculum development or in combined roles. Patient involvement was recommended in order to bring the patient voice into education. There were several examples of how to recruit and train patients to perform an educational role. The effectiveness of patient involvement was measured by evaluation studies and reported improvements in skills. Conclusions There was limited evidence of the long‐term effectiveness of patient involvement and issues of ethics, psychological impact and influence on education policy were poorly explored. Future studies should address these issues and should explore the practicalities of sustaining such educational programmes within medical schools.

Brukermedvirkning og mestring – emner i fremtidens legeutdanning?

“…Gjennom søkene i ovennevnte tidsskrifter fant vi tre systematiske litteraturoversikter (Jha, Quinton, Bekker, & Roberts, 2009;Morgan & Jones, 2009;Towle et al, 2010) og to primaerartikler (Thomas et al, 2015;. Vi vil i det som følger beskrive sentrale poeng fra litteraturoversiktene (hovedsakelig fra Towle et al, 2010).…”

Patient-led training on patient safety: A pilot study to test the feasibility and acceptability of an educational intervention

“…Educational interventions should be integrated into existing training programmes to minimise disruption impact of patient involvement on the patients themselves including empowerment and improvement in patient-doctor communication. Patient narratives involving patients sharing their stories with professionals are widely employed as part of medical training (Repper & Breeze 2007;Jha et al 2009). …”

“…There is also little evidence of the feasibility or effectiveness of patientcentred interventions and uncertainty over their acceptability amongst patients and health professionals (Davis et al 2007(Davis et al , 2011Peat et al 2009). In medical education, a systematic review reported patient-led teaching for healthcare professionals to be effective in terms of learner satisfaction and improved performance in key areas such as communication skills (Jha et al 2009). This review also highlighted the positive…”

Co-Developing Interprofessional Course Content with People with Disabilities

“…Inclusion criteria were based on a literature review of active patient involvement in education (Jha et al, 2009) and the researchers' experiential knowledge. When selecting participants, efforts were made to diversify the team in terms of age, gender, types of impairment, and experiences as service users.…”

“…In health and social care, IPE occurs when two or more professions learn with, from, and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of services (CAIPE, 2002). In recent years, a growing number of IPE initiatives have called upon people receiving services to act as experts in the teaching, evaluation, and development of educational content (Jha et al, 2009;Towle et al, 2010). Inspired by this innovative approach, a team composed of eight people with intellectual, physical, or sensory disabilities, four graduate students, and three researchers or professors pooled their expertise to co-develop an IPE university course.…”