Telemedicine as an Ethics Teaching Tool for Medical Students within the Nephrology Curriculum

Abstract

A novel patient-centered approach was used to deliver ethics curriculum to medical students. Two medical school clinicians designed a telemedicine session linking their facilities (across 2 continents). The session, Exploring the Patient Experience Through Telemedicine: Dialysis and End-Stage Renal Disease, allowed second-year medical students to explore various parameters of quality of life experienced by dialysis patients. A panel of 4 medical students interviewed a dialysis patient via Skype video connection between the medical school and the hospital's dialysis unit. Interview questions were adapted from the Kidney Disease Quality of Life instrument. During the live video-streamed interview, the remaining 23 second-year medical students observed the session. Afterward, the 23 were offered a voluntary anonymous online feedback survey (15 responded). The 4 panelists submitted narrative responses to 2 open-ended questions about their experience. All 15 responding students "Strongly agreed" or "Agreed" that the session was an aid to their professionalism skills and behaviors; 14 of 15 "Strongly agreed" or "Agreed" that telemedicine technology contributed to their understanding of the topic; 12 of 15 "Strongly agreed" that the session improved their understanding of the psychosocial burdens of dialysis, quality of life, and human suffering, and increased their empathy toward patients; and 12 of 15 "Strongly agreed" or "Agreed" that the session encouraged reflective thinking and was an aid to improving their communication skills. Telemedicine can be an effective and feasible method to deliver an ethics curriculum with a patient-centered approach. Additionally, the cross-cultural experience exposes students to additional contextual features of medicine.

Building virtual communities of practice for health

“…Collaborative learning in health care has evolved rapidly; the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s collaborative learning model offers one leading example. 1 Telemedicine also allows long-distance training for health-care professionals, 2 an effective method to deliver patient-centred, contextual medical curricula, 3 and supportive supervision. Additionally, online social networking enables communities of practice 4 that “offer the potential to bring together temporally and geographically dispersed actors to work towards a common purpose”.…”

Teledermatology and teledermatopathology as educational tools for international dermatology: a virtual grand rounds pilot curriculum

“…Where international rotations are not possible, other studies have shown that didactics or classroom‐based education can play a role in improving international health exposure and cultural appreciation . In a telemedicine‐based, patient‐case focused, ethics in nephrology curriculum, one study reported high trainee exposure to additional contextual features of medicine and cross‐cultural appreciation, illustrating that telemedicine could be used to address cultural sensitivity goals in education . These experiences demonstrate that international travel is not always necessary to obtain meaningful educational experiences in international health.…”

“…15,19 In a telemedicine-based, patient-case focused, ethics in nephrology curriculum, one study reported high trainee exposure to additional contextual features of medicine and cross-cultural appreciation, illustrating that telemedicine could be used to address cultural sensitivity goals in education. 20 These experiences demonstrate that international travel is not always necessary to obtain meaningful educational experiences in international health. Our study provides additional evidence that novel educational tools, such as teledermatology-based virtual grand rounds, can improve international health and cross-cultural medical training among residents while addressing ACGME core competencies.…”

Telenephrology: current perspectives and future directions

“…Bramstedt et al 17 presented a study assessing telemedicine as an ethics teaching tool for medical students in the nephrology curriculum. They found that telemedicine can be an effective and feasible method with which to deliver an ethics curriculum with a patient-centered approach.…”