Teaching disability and rehabilitation to medical students

Abstract

A survey of UK medical schools was undertaken to determine the teaching that was being offered on disability and rehabilitation. In general, teaching on this topic appeared fragmented and inadequate but a number of interesting innovations were identified. These included: a drama workshop run by a group whose members mainly have learning disabilities at St George's Medical School, student-directed learning at the University of Dundee and structured teaching programmes at the Universities of Leeds and Edinburgh. The General Medical Council Education Committee's 1991 discussion document on the undergraduate curriculum specifically mentions disability as an important topic. A number of schools mentioned that they were in the process of revising their curriculum as a consequence. Recommendations arising from the findings of the survey include integration of disability and rehabilitation into clinical teaching, focus of teaching on those types of disability which are common in the community, greater emphasis on functional assessment in teaching the physical examination, and the wider use of standard assessment instruments, for example for activities of daily living, cognitive impairment and locomotor disability. There is a need for improved communication between medical schools to facilitate the spread of educational activities on this topic.

Educating Health Professionals about Disability: A Review of Interventions

“…For example, an intervention using narratives of hearing loss enabled audiology students to think beyond technical issues and improved their listening skills (Berg et al 2008). Other interventions have drawn on reflective writing (Westmoreland et al 2009), cinema (Block et al 2005 and performance (Kahtan et al 1994, McClimens & Scott 2007, Shapiro 2011). …”

Teaching learning disability to undergraduate medical students

“…In a review of teaching disability and rehabilitation in UK medical schools, Kahtan et al (1994) identified a set of core objectives and the need to integrate these topics into clinical teaching, with greater emphasis on functional assessment in the physical examination and the use of standardised assessment instruments, such as activities of daily living. Their considerations covered all types of disability, including learning disability, and they emphasised the need for the teaching on these topics to be coordinated.…”

“…The teaching of learning disabilities must be coordinated throughout a medical school (Hollins, 1988;Kahtan et al, 1994) and an individual should be identified who has appropriate time, resources and experience to undertake this coordination. Where there are academic appointments in learning disability then this allows greater teaching time which is more appropriate (Lennox & Diggens, 1999a).…”

A curriculum to teach medical students to care for people with disabilities: development and initial implementation

“…There is evidence that certain educational interventions such as early and frequent encounters with people with disabilities improve medical students' knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary for caring for these people[6,7,17,20,21]. However, little attention has been devoted to the development of curricular content and strategies to prepare students to deal with patients with disabilities.…”