Anaesthetists' and surgeons' attitudes towards informed consent in the UK: an observational study

Background  

The attitudes of patients' to consent have changed over the years, but there has been little systematic study of the attitudes of anaesthetists and surgeons in this process. We aimed to describe observations made on the attitudes of medical professionals working in the UK to issues surrounding informed consent.     

Knowledge and attitudes about health research amongst a group of Pakistani medical students

Background  

Health research training is an important part of medical education. This study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes regarding health research in a group of Pakistani medical students at Aga Khan University, Karachi.     

If you feed them, they will come: A prospective study of the effects of complimentary food on attendance and physician attitudes at medical grand rounds at an academic medical center

Background  

Evidence suggests that attendance at medical grand rounds at academic medical centers is waning. The present study examined whether attendance at medical grand rounds increased after providing complimentary food to attendees and also assessed attendee attitudes about complimentary food.     

Comparing gender awareness in Dutch and Swedish first-year medical students - results from a questionaire

Background  

To ascertain good and appropriate healthcare for both women and men implementation of gender perspectives in medical education is needed. For a successful implementation, knowledge about students' attitudes and beliefs about men, women, and gender is crucial. The aim of this study was to compare attitudes to gender and gender stereotyping among Dutch and Swedish male and female medical students.     

Attitudes toward and experiences of gender issues among physician teachers: A survey study conducted at a university teaching hospital in Sweden

Background  

Gender issues are important to address during medical education, however research about the implementation of gender in medical curricula reports that there are obstacles. The aim of this study was to explore physician teachers' attitudes to gender issues.     

Medical student attitudes toward video games and related new media technologies in medical education

Background  

Studies in K-12 and college students show that their learning preferences have been strongly shaped by new media technologies like video games, virtual reality environments, the Internet, and social networks. However, there is no known research on medical students' game experiences or attitudes towards new media technologies in medical education. This investigation seeks to elucidate medical student experiences and attitudes, to see whether they warrant the development of new media teaching methods in medicine.     

Attitudes of undergraduate health science students towards patients with intellectual disability,substance abuse,and acute mental illness: a cross-sectional study

Background  

There is a long history of certain medical conditions being associated with stigma, stereotypes, and negative attitudes. Research has shown that such attitudes can have a detrimental effect on patients presenting with stigmatised medical conditions and can even flow on to impact their family. The objective of this study was to measure the attitudes of undergraduate students enrolled in six different health-related courses at Monash University toward patients with intellectual disability, substance abuse, and acute mental illness.     

Assessing medical students' attitudes towards learning communication skills – which components of attitudes do we measure?

Background  

The Communication Skills Attitudes Scale (CSAS) created by Rees, Sheard and Davies and published in 2002 has been a widely used instrument for measuring medical students' attitudes towards learning communication skills. Earlier studies have shown that the CSAS mainly tests two dimensions of attitudes towards communication; positive attitudes (PAS) and negative attitudes (NAS). The objectives of our study are to explore the attitudes of Norwegian medical students towards learning communication skills, and to compare our findings with reports from other countries.     

Experts' attitudes towards medical futility: an empirical survey from Japan

Background  

The current debate about medical futility is mostly driven by theoretical and personal perspectives and there is a lack of empirical data to document experts and public attitudes towards medical futility.     

Clinicians' implicit and explicit attitudes about the legitimacy of functional neurological disorders correlate with referral decisions

Objectives

Uncertainty regarding the legitimacy of functional neurological disorder (FND) remains among some health care professionals. Despite treatment guidelines and consensus recommendations, variability in clinical practice referral decisions persists. Evidence from other conditions suggests such clinical decision making is impacted by practitioners' implicit and explicit attitudes. We aimed to identify whether health care professionals hold implicit and/or explicit attitudes about the legitimacy of FND and whether these attitudes are associated with referral decision making.

Design/Methods

We included 66 health care professionals who work with people with neurological conditions: n = 37 medical doctors, mainly neurologists (n = 18) and psychiatrists (n = 10), and n = 29 doctoral level practitioner psychologists. Participants completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT), Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), a referral decision-making vignette task and self-report measures of explicit attitudes on FND-legitimacy, therapeutic optimism and clinician confidence. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) was used as a comparator condition.

Results

Participants self-reported strong explicit FND-legitimate and MS-legitimate attitudes but demonstrated an implicit FND-illegitimate/MS-legitimate bias. Deeper examination provided by the IRAP data indicated pro-FND-legitimate attitudes, but no bias for or against FND-illegitimate—contrasting the pro-MS-legitimate, anti-MS-illegitimate attitudes for the comparator condition. Attitudes about FND-illegitimacy were negatively associated with likelihood of referral to physical interventions such as physiotherapy. Medical doctors had lower treatment optimism and stronger explicit attitudes that FND is illegitimate than psychologists.

Conclusions

At an implicit level, clinicians are uncertain about the illegitimacy of FND, and such attitudes are associated with lower likelihood of referral to physiotherapy in particular. Improved education on FND among health care professionals is indicated.     

Design and validation of the Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward the Homeless Inventory (HPATHI)

Background  

Recent literature has called for humanistic care of patients and for medical schools to begin incorporating humanism into medical education. To assess the attitudes of health-care professionals toward homeless patients and to demonstrate how those attitudes might impact optimal care, we developed and validated a new survey instrument, the Health Professional Attitudes Toward the Homeless Inventory (HPATHI). An instrument that measures providers' attitudes toward the homeless could offer meaningful information for the design and implementation of educational activities that foster more compassionate homeless health care. Our intention was to describe the process of designing and validating the new instrument and to discuss the usefulness of the instrument for assessing the impact of educational experiences that involve working directly with the homeless on the attitudes, interest, and confidence of medical students and other health-care professionals.     

Comparative survey of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) attitudes, use, and information-seeking behaviour among medical students, residents & faculty

Background  

There is significant and growing national interest for introducing Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) instruction into allopathic medical education. We measured CAM attitudes, use, and information-seeking behaviors as a baseline to evaluate future planned CAM instruction.     

Development and validation of IMAQ: Integrative Medicine Attitude Questionnaire

Background  

Complementary/alternative medicine and integrative medicine (CAM/IM) are increasingly used in the U.S. We set out to develop and validate a brief questionnaire measuring health care provider and medical student attitudes regarding these approaches to healthcare.     

Proximity morality in medical school – medical students forming physician morality "on the job": Grounded theory analysis of a student survey

Background  

The value of ethics education have been questioned. Therefore we did a student survey on attitudes about the teaching of ethics in Swedish medical schools.     

Teaching appropriate interactions with pharmaceutical company representatives: The impact of an innovative workshop on student attitudes

Background  

Pharmaceutical company representatives (PCRs) influence the prescribing habits and professional behaviour of physicians. However, the skills for interacting with PCRs are not taught in the traditional medical school curriculum. We examined whether an innovative, mandatory workshop for third year medical students had immediate effects on knowledge and attitudes regarding interactions with PCRs.     

The role of the user within the medical device design and development process: medical device manufacturers' perspectives

Background  

Academic literature and international standards bodies suggest that user involvement, via the incorporation of human factors engineering methods within the medical device design and development (MDDD) process, offer many benefits that enable the development of safer and more usable medical devices that are better suited to users' needs. However, little research has been carried out to explore medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within this process, or indeed what value they believe can be added by doing so.     

Knowledge, attitudes and practices around health research: the perspective of physicians-in-training in Pakistan

Background  

Health research training is an essential component of medical education and a vital exercise to help develop physician research skills. This study was carried out to assess the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices towards research amongst a group of Post Graduate Medical Trainees (PGMTs') at Aga Khan University (AKU), Pakistan.     

Development and validation of the CAM Health Belief Questionnaire (CHBQ) and CAM use and attitudes amongst medical students

Background  

The need for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and holistic approaches in allopathic medical school curricula has been well articulated. Despite increased CAM instruction, feasible and validated instruments for measuring learner outcomes in this content area do not widely exist. In addition, baseline attitudes or beliefs of medical students towards CAM, and the factors that may have formed them, including use of CAM itself, remain unreported.     

Improving medical students' attitudes towards the chronic sick: a role for social science research

Background  

Many medical students are negatively disposed toward the elderly and chronic sick. The present study assessed the impact of a community-based teaching initiative, the Life History Project, on students' attitudes to these groups.     

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

Background  

Lack of knowledge and skills, and negative attitudes towards patients with disabilities, may adversely affect the services available to this group and negatively affect their health outcomes. The objective of this paper is to describe the development and initial implementation of a curriculum for teaching medical students to care for patients with disabilities.