Patient Co-Participation in Narrative Medicine Curricula as a Means of Engaging Patients as Partners in Healthcare: A Pilot Study Involving Medical Students and Patients Living with HIV.

This paper describes a pilot study of a new model for narrative medicine training, "community-based participatory narrative medicine" (CBPNM), which centers on shared narrative work between healthcare trainees and patients. Nine medical students and eight patients participated in one of two, five-week-long pilot workshop series. A case study of participants' experiences of the workshop series identified three major themes: (1) the reciprocal and collaborative nature of participants' relationships; (2) the interplay between self-reflection and receiving feedback from others; and (3) the clinical and pedagogical implications of the CBPNM model. Principles and proposed outcomes of the CBPNM model are presented.

A Value-Added Health Systems Science Intervention Based on My Life, My Story for Patients Living with HIV and Medical Students: Translating Narrative Medicine from Classroom to Clinic.

In 2018-2019, at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (KSOM), we developed and piloted a narrative-based health systems science intervention for patients living with HIV and medical students in which medical students co-wrote patients' life narratives for inclusion in the electronic health record. The pilot study aimed to assess the acceptability of the "life narrative protocol" (LNP) from multiple stakeholder positions and characterize participants' experiences of the clinical and pedagogical implications of the LNP. Students were recruited from KSOM. Patients and staff were recruited from the Maternal, Child, and Adolescent/Adult Center for Infectious Disease and Virology (MCA) at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. Ten patients, seventeen students, and ten MCA staff participated in the pilot study. Qualitative methods were used to gather data from students', patients', and staff's perspectives. Three themes emerged from the thematic analysis: (1) patients' life narratives conveyed their unique life experiences and voices; (2) the protocol could result in wide-ranging effects on HIV care; (3) the LNP enabled students to contribute value to patients' healthcare. Across groups, participants considered the LNP an acceptable intervention. The LNP, its limitations, and implications for HIV care, narrative medicine, and health information technology are presented.

The impact of a new curriculum on medical students' interest in and knowledge of health systems science.

In this analysis, we describe medical student interest in and knowledge of health systems science (HSS) during the launching of a new curriculum. We surveyed first year students (MS1s) before and after exposure to a new HSS curriculum. MS1s demonstrated a 16% increase in HSS knowledge post-curriculum. Interest in HSS was high in MS1s before (90%) and after (88%) the curriculum when compared to MS3s (72%). The implementation of a longitudinal HSS curriculum may increase knowledge and maintain interest in the subject.

Shaping professionalism in pre-clinical medical students: Professionalism and the practice of medicine.

BACKGROUND: Increasing emphasis is placed on teaching and assessment of professionalism in the continuum of medical education. Consistent and longitudinal instruction and assessment are crucial factors that learners need in order to internalize the tenets of professionalism. AIM: We aimed to develop a novel longitudinal course in professionalism spanning the first 2 years in a medical curriculum. METHODS: This is a description of the process undertaken over the past 7 years to develop and implement a professionalism curriculum. We used the conceptual framework of constructivism, principles of adult learning, experiential learning and reflective practice to integrate learning with experience. We included student input in session development. Faculty mentors serve as role models to guide, assist and counsel students. Assessment of learners is accomplished using self, peer and mentor evaluation, and a student portfolio. Program evaluation is by course and faculty evaluation. RESULTS: Students are given a final grade of pass or fail, together with a brief narrative. Course evaluations were positive. A survey questionnaire showed that more than 60% of the students reported gaining skills related to course goals. CONCLUSIONS: A longitudinal curriculum for the pre-clinical years was successfully launched. Plans are under way to expand this into the clinical years.

The limits of narrative and culture: reflections on Lorrie Moore's "People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk".

This article provides a discussion of the limits of both narrative and culture based on a close textual analysis of the short story, "People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk," by Lorrie Moore. In this story, a mother describes her experiences on a pediatric oncology ward when her infant son develops Wilms' tumor. The authors examine how the story satirically portrays the spurious claims of language, story, and culture to protect us from an unjust universe and then exposes their false promises. The various personal, professional, and genre-specific narratives we use to create order and coherence from the terror of serious illness are ultimately ineffective. Similarly, the superficially comforting culture of the hospital ward cares more about creating the illusion of control than it does about the suffering of sick children. Language and culture cannot make sense of human anguish, the article concludes, yet they are all we have to hold back the chaos. Mystery and uncertainty, as part of the human condition, must become part of our stories and part of our culture.

"Being the best we can be": medical students' reflections on physician responsibility in the social media era.

PURPOSE: To examine attitudes, self-reported behaviors, and intended actions related to medical students' use of online social media after an educational intervention. METHOD: In 2011, 180 first-year medical students at the Keck School of Medicine participated in a required two-hour session on the relevance of online social media use to professionalism. Students submitted postsession written reflections about their online presence and professional roles. The authors qualitatively analyzed and coded these reflections for emerging themes. They also examined postsession evaluations and conducted a four-month follow-up survey to identify changes in students' online social networking behaviors. RESULTS: All 180 students submitted written reflections and postsession evaluations. The authors identified 10 theme categories within three domains (immediate action, intended future action, value change) from the reflections. The most common themes were "role awareness" (144/539), "did nothing" (94/539), and "intention to edit" (84/539). On a scale of 1 to 5, students rated the overall session quality at 3.92 (standard deviation 0.28). Sixty-four percent (115/180) of the students responded to the follow-up survey. Of those, 40% (46/115) reported editing or changing their Web presence after the session, and 24% (28/115) anticipated spending less time on online social networking. CONCLUSIONS: Attending a required session in a professionalism course led to thoughtful reflection, increased professional role awareness, and intention to edit and monitor future online presence among first-year medical students. After four months, students reported continued monitoring and editing of their online presence. Future studies should examine whether reinforcement throughout training is needed to maintain vigilance.

From contemporary art to core clinical skills: observation, interpretation, and meaning-making in a complex environment.

Many medical schools have incorporated experiences with representational or figurative art into the curriculum in an effort to improve learners' powers of observation, visual diagnostic skills, and pattern recognition skills or to enhance communication skills, foster teamwork, and/or improve empathy. The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California has partnered with Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art to design an educational experience with the goal of honing students' abilities to observe, describe, and interpret complex information. The authors discovered that through a constructivist approach to viewing and discussing nonrepresentational, contemporary art, students were able not only to apply their observational and interpretive skills in a safe, nonclinical setting but also to accept the facts that ambiguity is inherent to art, life, and clinical experience and that there can be more than one answer to many questions. This intervention, entailing extensive guided inquiry, collaborative thinking, and process work, has allowed students and faculty to reflect on the parallel processes at work in clinical practice and art interpretation. In patient encounters, physicians (and physicians-in-training) begin with attention and observation, continue with multiple interpretations of that which they observe, move to sorting through often ambiguous evidence, proceed to collaboration within a community of observers, and finally move to consensus and direction for action. In the worlds of both art and medicine, individuals imagine experiences beyond their own and test hypotheses by integrating their own prior knowledge and intuition and by comparing their evidence with that of others.

The development of a comprehensive school-wide simulation-based procedural skills curriculum for medical students.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this project was to assess the effectiveness of using the Delphi process to create a structured simulation-based procedural skills curriculum for all students at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (KSOM). METHODS: The Delphi process was used to develop a list of procedural skills that students are expected to perform competently prior to graduation. Once consensus of faculty was reached, a needs assessment was performed to poll graduating seniors' experience performing each skill. A comprehensive simulation-based curriculum was developed and implemented for all Year II students at KSOM. Student satisfaction with the curriculum was collected using a standardized end-of-session evaluation form and student self confidence was assessed using a retrospective pre- and post-self-efficacy rating for each skill. RESULTS: The needs assessment clearly established the need for a more organized approach to teaching procedural skills at KSOM. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed that students responded favorably to the curriculum and appreciated the efforts put forth by KSOM. Student self-efficacy increased significantly for each skill. CONCLUSIONS: The Delphi process was effective in reaching consensus among educational leaders at KSOM regarding which skills to include in the curriculum. Although there were a few minor challenges, we determined that it is feasible to develop and implement an explicit school-wide simulated-based procedural skills curriculum.