Disability training reduces students' negativity
Karen Hebert, Bristol
Three quarters of the words used by medical students
to describe disability were negative, a study has shown, but a training
course caused a significant change in attitude (Medical Education 2005;39:
176-83).
Margaret Byron and colleagues asked a cohort of 381
medical students at Bristol University to anonymously write down words that
they associated with disability. They repeated the exercise after a four
day course about disability.
Words visually describing disability and loss were
prominent initially, accounting for 85% of the words, and 74% of the words
were negative. Commonly used words were “wheelchair,”
“handicap,” “impairment,” and
“disadvantage.”
VOISIN/PHANIE/REX
Students associate disability with disadvantage
Focus groups showed that students were nervous about
meeting disabled people and although well intentioned were patronising in
their attitude. One student was quoted as saying, “Make special
arrangements for them so that they feel included. Sort of almost mother
them a bit so that they don’t feel insecure.”
Dr Byron was not surprised at the results: “The
focus of medicine is disease and what it stops you doing. And after all
students are simply representing what most of society thinks.”
Students then took a disability course, which included
a focus on contact with disabled people and was mostly run by disabled
tutors. Actors performed as disabled people in scenarios showing examples
of good and bad practice. The course included practical tips on
communicating with people with specific disabilities and was examined in an
objective structured clinical examination.
After the course, when repeating the word exercise,
the students’ emphasis had shifted, with fewer visual words, more
words representing enablement, and more words relating to the social model
of disability and to positive personal attributes.
The aim of the study was to inform teaching: “We
encountered a great deal of resistance from students towards disability
teaching so we decided to investigate further with this study. Students
have felt that this is ‘common sense’ and shouldn’t be
taught.”
The course looked at the societal and cultural
influences that create a person’s perspective on disability.
“It is important for students to realise that we are not blaming them
as individuals for society’s views,” Dr Byron said.
The researchers have won approval and funding to pilot
a scheme which will disseminate this teaching model nationwide to other
medical schools and in the teaching of other healthcare professionals.
Dr Byron champions the importance of effective
disability teaching: “The NHS is institutionally disabilist. What
compounds it for disabled people is that health professionals have a
particularly intimate relationship with them, and so they feel much
more vulnerable. As doctors we hold a position of power, and as such we
must set an example in this area.”
studentBMJ 2005;13:89-132 March ISSN 0966-6494
 |
Responses published this month
|
Articles
|
Responses
|
|
NEWS
Disability training reduces students' negativity
Karen Hebert, Bristol (March, 2005)
|
Lucy Alice Radmore
(February 24, 2005)
Read this response
|
|
|
NEWS
Disability training reduces students' negativity
Karen Hebert, Bristol (March, 2005)
|
|
Lucy Alice Radmore
(February 24, 2005)
Year 2, Peninsula Medical Schoollucy.radmore@students.pms.ac.uk
|
|
|
This article implies that the cohort of students involved in this study were medical students from the University of Bristol. However, as one of the participants in the study cited, I would like to clarify that the students involved were from 3 institutions and were not only medical students. Students were from The University of Bristol, The University of the West on England and the Peninsula Medical School and were composed of medical students, nursing students, physiotherapy students and perhaps students of other healthcare professions that I did not get to meet.
In my opinion this makes the interpretation of this research into disability and diversity teaching a little different because medical students were learning alongside other healthcare students. For me this was a rewarding experience and I feel I gained more of an insight into disability than I otherwise would have. Particularly during the Problem-Based Learning aspect of the disability and diversity course when students were able to share knowlegde and experiences.
I believe that working as a multidisplinary team is extremely important in order to provide adequate care for patients. Having this opportunity to learn alongside other healthcare students has been an invaluable because it has deepened my understanding of complex issues and helped me understand what it is like to work with other healthcare professionals.
|
|
|
|
