Why are newly qualified doctors unprepared to care for patients at the end of life?

Medical Education 2011: 45 : 389–399 Context Death and dying occur in almost all areas of medicine; it is essential to equip doctors with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to care for patients at the end of life. Little is known about what doctors learn about end‐of‐life care while at medical school and how they learn to care for dying patients in their first year as doctors. Methods We carried out a qualitative study using face‐to‐face interviews with a purposive sample of 21 newly qualified doctors who trained in different medical schools. Results Data were analysed using a constant comparative approach. Two main groups of themes emerged. The first pertained to medical school experiences of end‐of‐life care, including: lack of exposure; a culture of ‘clerking and signs’; being kept and keeping away from dying patients; lack of examinations; variable experiences, and theoretical awareness. The second group of themes pertained to the experiences of recently qualified doctors and included: realising that patients really do die; learning by doing; the role of seniors; death and dying within the hospital culture; the role of nursing staff, and the role of the palliative care team. Conclusions Undergraduate medical education is currently failing to prepare junior doctors for their role in caring for dying patients by omitting to provide meaningful contact with these patients during medical school. This lack of exposure prevents trainee doctors from realising their own learning needs, which only become evident when they step onto the wards as doctors and are expected to care for these patients. Newly qualified doctors perceive that they receive little formal teaching about palliative or end‐of‐life care in their new role and the culture within the hospital setting does not encourage learning about this subject. They also report that they learn from ‘trial and error’ while ‘doing the job’, but that their skills and knowledge are limited and they therefore seek advice from those outside their usual medical team, mainly from nursing staff and members of palliative care teams.     

Undergraduate students in orthopedic nursing care

This study identifies some undergraduate nursing students' imaginary manifestations concerning themselves and care delivered to patients with orthopedic and/or trauma disorders. The Social Poetics method was used and the research group was composed of 15 undergraduate students. Only the categories and subcategories exclusively related to the "student" are presented in this paper. Data revealed that care provided by orthopedic nursing students is the result of a care relationship that emerges from their sensitivity toward patients and their own knowledge, skills and attitudes. The orthopedic treatment, equipment and procedures, to which patients are submitted, cause important emotional distress for students, empathic behavior and encourage them to search for ways to minimize their patients' pain. All the aspects that permeate care provided by orthopedic nursing students should be identified in order to enable reassessment of the teaching-learning process.     

Mastering health care executive education: creating transformational competence

The effective health services executive needs to continue to develop analytical, technical and behavioral skills to anticipate and meet the changing requirements of the health care industry. Those leading the field of health administration will need to be competent in achieving transformations. Lifelong learning is a necessity. As the structure and knowledge of the field change, so must the ways of exchanging information about health and medical care. Distance learning is a strategy for lifelong learning that can be used to continue one's education. In order to be successful in positioning a health care organization in the competitive world, investment in continued education to update strategic thinking and the analytical competency of executives and managers is imperative. Academic programs able to respond to the educational needs of the health care industry have a dedicated faculty who understand corporate culture and competitiveness in the health care marketplace and are able to offer effective adult education using cutting-edge computer technology for distance learning.     

Assessment of process quality in Tanzanian primary care

Process quality is the commonly used operational definition of health care quality. Its key components are technical and inter-personal skills, but most assessments undertaken in developing countries focus only on technical skills. This study from Tanzania used explicit observation checklists to review the process of providing antenatal, curative and nursing care in primary health units, assessing both technical and inter-personal skills. The study findings emphasize the weaknesses in available care, particularly in the attitudes of health staff but also in aspects of technical care. Differences in performance between health units appear to be influenced by factors such as workloads, structure and staff allocations. Differences between cadres were also identified and may underlie some of the inter-unit differences. The policy actions required to address the problems must reflect the diversity of the underlying influences, seeking to raise both technical and inter-personal quality, as the two are mutually reinforcing.     

The clinician's role in meeting patient information needs: suggested learning outcomes

BACKGROUND: Patients have always fulfilled their information needs from a variety of different sources over time. Clinician-patient consultations are one part of that process. Some patients have increasing opportunities to obtain information through new sources such as the internet, touch-screens, and patient-held records. Others remain poorly informed. OBJECTIVES: To identify learning outcomes for clinicians in meeting patient information needs and working with well-informed patients. DESIGN: Four-stage multicentre multidisciplinary qualitative study. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: (1) Semistructured interviews with 20 clinicians in Glasgow; (2) semistructured interviews with 52 clinicians in Nottingham and London; (3) testing of consensus by postal questionnaire and Delphi method amongst 37 clinicians in medicine, nursing and the professions allied to medicine, and (4) conference to discuss results. RESULTS: 46 learning outcomes were identified in the eight areas of: placing a higher priority on patient information and education; understanding the patient's information needs and environment; understanding the emotional aspects of learning; developing patient understanding; helping patients to understand about health care and health care information; learning from the patient; knowing about information sources and their use, and issues of multidisciplinary working. CONCLUSIONS: The suggested learning outcomes provide the basis for wider discussion, for possible inclusion in curricula both at undergraduate and continuing education levels, and as the basis for the development of new educational materials.     

Building the knowledge of the nursing student: an ethical-social approach

This study aimed at knowing the relation between ethics and self care facing the construction of knowledge of nursing undergraduate and to identify values that conduct that construction. Data were collected through interviews and analysed under social phenomenological and the interviewee'speeches showed the following categories related to motivation for: lecture'posture in the construction of knowledge of student; project to become nurse; relationship between theory and practice; commitment with professional formation. Motivations because: construction of knowledge based on life experiences and self care supported by autonomy Theoretial and practical knowledge of nursing undergraduate was built up through of new challenges.     

Perceptions of teachers of the undergraduate nursing program of a public federal university of the clinical-faculty integration

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the perception of the faculty members from the nursing undergraduate program of a public federal university on the clinical-faculty nurses integration model. In order to understand the faculty's experiences, a phenomenological approach was used, according to the structural component of the chosen phenomenon. The results showed that this faculty-clinical nurses integration model is seen an a challenge to both faculty and nurse professionals; that adequate resources are crucial for an effective integration between health care practice and education; and finally, that the integration model can bring benefits to both institutions.     

Multiprofessional learning: the attitudes of medical, nursing and pharmacy students to shared learning

OBJECTIVES: The belief that the effectiveness of patient care will improve through collaboration and teamwork within and between health care teams is providing a focus internationally for 'shared learning' in health professional education. While it may be hard to overcome structural and organizational obstacles to implementing interprofessional learning, negative student attitudes may be most difficult to change. This study has sought to quantify the attitudes of first-year medical, nursing and pharmacy students' towards interprofessional learning, at course commencement. DESIGN: The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) (University of Liverpool, Department of Health Care Education), was administered to first-year medical, nursing and pharmacy students at the University of Auckland. Differences between the three groups were analysed. SETTING: The Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. RESULTS: The majority of students reported positive attitudes towards shared learning. The benefits of shared learning, including the acquisition of teamworking skills, were seen to be beneficial to patient care and likely to enhance professional working relationships. However professional groups differed: nursing and pharmacy students indicated more strongly that an outcome of learning together would be more effective teamworking. Medical students were the least sure of their professional role, and considered that they required the acquisition of more knowledge and skills than nursing or pharmacy students. CONCLUSION: Developing effective teamworking skills is an appropriate focus for first-year health professional students. The timing of learning about the roles of different professionals is yet to be resolved.     

Nursing teachers in clinical training areas: a phenomenological focus

During theoretical and practical activities in clinical training areas, nursing teachers provide the bases needed for the development of future professionals. The goal is to understand the experience of nursing teachers with nursing students in clinical training areas. Therefore, a phenomenological qualitative method was chosen, and Martin Heidegger's philosophical framework was used to support data analysis. Five faculty from a Chilean university participated in the study. The analysis permitted discovering the following themes: being a faculty at the hospital, contact with nurse practitioners and being a faculty in care teaching. The study demonstrated that teaching/care integration is a constructive element that facilitates the teaching and learning process, aiming to prepare nursing professionals who incorporate the bases of authentic care into their activities.     

From being a nurse to becoming a ‘different’ doctor

Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to make meaning of the experiences of three highly qualified registered nurses who had enrolled in an undergraduate medical programme, this study provides insight into their personal journeys of wanting to become ‘different’ doctors. In so doing, they conceptualised their future selves as adding clinical reasoning and diagnostic skills to the patient-centred caring ethic of their nursing practice, becoming a multi-skilled community member or helping to fix the health care culture. By customising their identities, e.g. by splinting (aligning with their stronger nursing identity), by enriching current nursing practice with newly acquired theory as medical students or by patching a perceived deficiency (i.e. patient-centredness) in medicine, they tailored their identities. Their journeys had, however, not been the natural progression they had anticipated, threatened by perceived and/or real intrinsic (e.g. working as nurses whilst studying medicine) and extrinsic (e.g. interprofessional rivalry) factors. Rather than being accepted as legitimate newcomers to the medical profession, the women sometimes felt like intruders. Some nursing colleagues accused them of desertion. In response, they generally withheld their identities as nurses or medical students, compartmentalising their group membership. This study has highlighted the role of personal (e.g. prior experience; agency; resilience; personality) and contextual factors in ‘becoming’ a doctor. A recommendation emerging from this study is the need for interprofessional learning in the medical curriculum to cultivate a health care culture of collaboration rather than competition. Future research is required in terms of how allied health professionals transition to medicine.     

THE WEIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE: TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AND DOCTORS AND PATIENTS

This paper examines one particular problem in medical education: the rapid accumulation of technical medical knowledge. It is suggested that this development contributes significantly to several major deficiencies in training for clinical practice: it encourages a passive learning model, it helps to undervalue consultation skills and it inappropriately increases the student's anxiety in “not knowing all the facts.” In addition, the emphasis on technical knowledge helps to narrow the focus of attention to technical details at the expense of essential information on the patient's relationships and environment. Knowledge will continue to accumulate; a number of suggestions are made to ameliorate some of the harmful effects of this accumulation on teaching and learning in medical school. They include more emphasis on the process of the consultation and on problem-solving skills learned experientially rather than mastery of facts. A further recommendation is made to re-evaluate what is the essential knowledge base so that greater weight is given to information about the patient's relationships, attitudes and beliefs. The paper concludes with an assessment of the major institutional constraints standing in the way of the educational reforms outlined and suggests some ways these could be overcome.     

A comparison of interprofessional perceptions and working relationships among health and social care students: the results of a 3-year intervention

A longitudinal quantitative study in an English faculty of health and social care explored the effects of a pre-qualifying interprofessional curriculum for students from 10 professional programmes. Students on the interprofessional curriculum completed questionnaires containing four attitude scales on entry to the faculty, during their second year and at the end of their final year. At qualification, 581 students (76.9% of those qualifying) completed scales concerning their communication and teamwork skills, their attitudes towards interprofessional learning, their perceptions of interaction between health and social care professionals, and their opinions about their own (inter)professional relationships. Questionnaires were completed at both entry and qualification by 526 students (69.8% of those qualifying), and at all three points by 468 students (61.9% of those qualifying). A comparison group of 250 students (67.6% of those qualifying) on the previous uniprofessional curricula also completed questionnaires at qualification. Students on the interprofessional curriculum showed no significant change in their self-assessment of their communication and teamwork skills between entering the faculty and qualification. However, there was a negative shift in their attitudes to interprofessional learning and interprofessional interaction. Nevertheless, most students were positive about their own professional relationships at qualification. Students with previous experience of higher education were comparatively positive about their communication and teamwork skills, as were female students about interprofessional learning. However, the strongest influence on students' attitudes at qualification appeared to be professional programme. This suggests that interprofessional education does not inhibit the development of profession-specific attitudes. Students who qualified on the interprofessional curriculum were more positive about their own professional relationships than those who qualified on the previous uniprofessional curricula. These data suggest that experiencing an interprofessional curriculum has an effect on students' attitudes at qualification, particularly with regard to their positive perception of their own professional relationships.     

Measuring the effect of interprofessional problem-based learning on the attitudes of undergraduate health care students

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to measure the improvement in attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration of undergraduate health care students who have a single module of interprofessional problem-based learning (PBL) using real patients as triggers integrated into their curricula. DESIGN: A dedicated module, consisting of 5 PBL seminars, was integrated into the undergraduate medical, nursing and physiotherapy curricula at the participating institutions. Seminar groups consisted of students from a single profession in the control group, and of evenly distributed students from the participating professions in the intervention group. The Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale was used to measure improvements in attitudes towards interprofessional co-operation. Patients, faculty members and students were included in the evaluation of the interprofessional module and their comments examined for indications of adverse effects of the use of patients in this setting. RESULTS: A total of 177 students were recruited into the study and assigned to 1 of 16 seminar groups, all of which attended the complete module, 8 in control mode and 8 in intervention mode. Statistically significant improvements could be identified in the overall attitudes of male students in the intervention group, and in attitudes pertaining to the competence and autonomy of individuals in one's own profession in the intervention group as a whole. No significant improvements were detected in the control group. No adverse effects of the use of real patients came to light. CONCLUSIONS: The integration of an interprofessional educational module that requires limited student and faculty time in undergraduate health care curricula may be proven to have an effect. The Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale may be suitable for measuring such effect. Real patients may continue to contribute to education in this setting.     

Formation of administrative competences in nursing technicians

This exploratory, document-based study aimed to identify the competences described in the outlines of the subject nursing administration basics for technical nursing courses. We studied programs from 26 schools in the city of S?o Paulo, Brazil. Results showed that the general and specific competences of practical nurses are related to knowing how to do (59% and 54%), learning to know (34% and 45%) and knowing how to be (7% and 1%). This shows that there is still a prevalence of knowing how to do in professional education, and that there is a trend to have scientific knowledge as the foundation and tool for this purpose.     

A career open to the talents—Nurses’ doing and focus during the history

Based on a historical and a contemporary fieldwork at a Danish hospital, this article offers a genealogical and philosophical exploration of the development of nurses’ doing and focus within a hospital setting from the 1800 s to the present day. This exploration finds that nurses’ doing has changed during history, which is reflected in their focus. Thus, nurses’ focus has developed from, what the Danish philosopher Uffe Juul Jensen refers to as a situation-oriented, to a disease-oriented practice, and while new values are established, the conception of care as a core value in nursing seems to have receded. This article also argues that today's nurses are doing what doctors did in the 19th century. The French philosopher Michel Foucault discusses how things repeat themselves in new ways and new contexts. The nursing profession has become ‘a career open to the talents’ where nurses with the appropriate skills and talents are able to build a career, within which they provide status, position and legitimacy. The conclusion of the article discusses the significance of this development for patients and the nursing profession.     

Exploring continuous clinical placement for undergraduate students

Clinical placements are integral to health professional preparatory courses. These placements allow for the application of classroom-based learning into real patient care situations. In doing so, they provide opportunities for applying theoretical knowledge into practice contexts, skills development and socialisation into the chosen profession. However, despite its recognised importance across health professions, little has been written about optimal structures for supporting clinical learning. This paper presents one group of findings from a larger qualitative study aimed at exploring health professional student’s clinical experiences and their impact on career intentions. Findings reported here present a group of undergraduate midwifery student’s perspectives on a “home” hospital clinical placement model where continuous clinical placements were taken in the same agency (or hospital group) for 2 days per week over the final 2 years of their course. Two main themes emerged from the data analysis, these being, ‘familiarity’ and ‘continuity’. It is concluded that continuous placements in the same clinical setting have the potential to offer greater opportunities for learning and early professional socialisation than traditional block (Monday to Friday) placements. They can offer a more integrated approach to classroom theory and its application into practice.     

Models of faculty development for problem-based learning

Learning an innovative teaching method such as a problem-based learning is difficult for most faculty members because the method is based upon assumptions about learning that are often at variance with their beliefs. Faculty development can challenge assumptions about learning, provide experience with a new technique, and offer specific pedagogical skills that are needed to succeed as a tutor. A comprehensive approach to faculty development, derived from the literature in higher education, would include: instructional development, professional development, leadership development, and organizational development. Research on faculty development indicates positive results of such efforts. Faculty members who choose to learn about problem-based learning appear to progress through predictable stages of development that include: understanding and valuing the rationale for problem-based learning, acquiring general and content-specific tutor knowledge and skills, developing advanced skills in problem-based learning, and developing leadership and scholarship skills. Each of these steps, plus organizational vitality, are described along with recommendations for implementing such programs. Finally, five models of faculty development derived from medical schools with problem-based learning curricula are examined.     

Teaching the nursing process at undergraduate nursing programs in the State of Sao Paulo

The goal of this study was to describe the teaching of the nursing process at undergraduate nursing programs in the state of S?o Paulo. The sample was formed by 247 faculty members. With respect to the study methodology, authors elaborated a questionnaire that was sent to 899 faculty members from 32 public and private nursing schools in the state of S?o Paulo. Results showed regarding the teaching of the nursing process that, from the total of 147 faculty members who taught the content, 66 (44.9%) were from 19 private schools and 81 (55.1%) from 8 public schools.