Novel way to teach about adolescent illness
Pam Harvey recently presented a paper about using young adult literature to teach health professionals about adolescent illness at the 12th International Conference on Communication in Healthcare, hosted by the European Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH).
‘Faults in their stars: Literature for teaching about adolescent illness’ identified award-winning young adult novels that articulate an otherwise unheard voice: that of the adolescent patient.
The conference delegates gathered in Amsterdam were health professional educators and researchers with a special interest in the health system and professional and service communication.
Pam said she found it interesting that her paper appeared to be the only one investigating how medical humanities can inform communication teaching, although she saw some posters with similar themes.
“Generally, the conference confirmed that we are providing important opportunities to our students to learn better communication and interpretation skills, and that these can be expanded by innovative curriculum modification,” she said.
As Bendigo’s Simulated Patient Coordinator, Pam gained information relevant to her work in that field.
- Simulated patient training needs to be expanded to ensure the sim patient understands the learning objectives of the session (i.e. what the learner is expected to achieve). They should also have practice sessions with a variety of learners in order to learn to react (not act) to their responses.
- Sim patients need to be taught specifically how to provide feedback in and out of role, and neutrally.
- There are many teaching models for involving sim patients that could be adapted to the SRH teaching environment.
As Expert Patient Coordinator, the key learning point was:
- Need to involve community of patients when teaching about social and cultural issues.
As a teacher in communication, the key points were:
- Investigating patient/carer/relative understanding of illness and outcomes is essential to providing healthcare.
- Health professionals need to work with siblings and children, especially with health promotion information.
As an educational researcher, the key points were:
- Speakers provided details of theoretical frameworks and research models in which to conduct investigations.
- Communication skills training is currently being investigated on an international basis.
- Curriculum design is now favouring spiral models rather than linear/longitudinal models.
As an academic generally, the key point was:
- A strong online presence is important to link with like-minded teachers and researchers.
Pam said from a strategic perspective the Amsterdam-based conference progressed links with academics from Cambridge University, University of Melbourne and Deakin University. “I have a meeting in November with staff from University of Melbourne to investigate collaborative activities,” she added.
Although not funded by this travel grant, she also spent time at Imperial College and Kings College London talking to academics about their simulated patient and clinical skills program and their medical humanities courses.
According to Pam, this provided “excellent background for thought, future teaching and research innovations” into the MBBS.