Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
2
Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
3
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashad, IRAN
4
Educational Development Center, Vice Chancellor for Education, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
5
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Background: Patients are the valuable source of knowledge in medical education. A new concept is to use patients as educators. The patient can demonstrate the disease features more profound to the medical students because he has experienced it. Such Learning method would be more effective. This study was conducted for investigating the effect of using the patient as educator method on medical students' education.
Method: This study was conducted in a semi-experimental intervention method with 56 medical students of Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. 2 postmenopausal women, as patient educators, participated in the training course on the important points of history taking and examination in the post-menopause period. Demographic information of the students, including age, gender, and mean of scores, was collected. Then the students were divided into two groups. The control group received the routine method of training in the department. In the intervention group, a one-hour training session was held during which, the students took history of the patient and did physical examination, then patient feedback was given based on the checklist. One month later, both groups participated an OSCE about the postmenopausal patient history taking and physical examination. Finally, statistical analysis was done using SPSS software version 28.
Results: The two groups were homogenous in terms of age, sex, and average grade point (P>0.05). After the intervention, a significant difference between the two groups was observed in the history taking, physical examination and professionalism test scores between the two groups (P<0.001).
Conclusion: Using the "patient as educator" method can be a suitable method to enhance the skill level of history taking, physical examination and professionalism of medical students.
Keywords
Main Subjects
)