Building Provider-Caregiver Partnerships: Curricula for Medical Students and Residents

Building Provider-Caregiver Partnerships: Curricula for Medical Students and Residents

Blackie Michael; Baughman Kristin R; Palmisano Barbara; Sanders Margaret; Sperling David; Scott Erin; Radwany Steven; Drost Jennifer; Thomas Jon

Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

2019

2019-05

PROBLEM: A disconnect exists between caregivers and health care providers, resulting in fragmented communication, which increases caregiver stress and compromises patient care. Although providers have a responsibility to recognize caregiver burden, they receive scant training on issues important to caregivers. APPROACH: From 2014-2017, as part of the Building Caregiver Partnerships Through Interprofessional Education project-a collaborative effort between Northeast Ohio Medical University and Summa Health-the authors developed curricula to foster effective partnerships between health care providers and caregivers by exposing medical students and residents to highly personal caregiving narratives. The curricula center on a short film featuring four families representing diverse caregiving experiences. The authors crafted several discussion guides, case-based learning exercises, structured clinical encounters, team-based simulations, and clinical cases as companion educational tools for the film. OUTCOMES: Medical students reported the educational tools piloted to be valuable in broadening their understanding of caregivers' needs, while residents reported the educational tools piloted to also be valuable in improving their communication and building partnerships with caregivers. Undergraduate and graduate faculty reported finding the pilots valuable. NEXT STEPS: Future goals include conducting an outcome evaluation, based on ACGME milestones, to identify and examine the clinical outcomes to determine if communication increases and quality of care improves as a result of the project. The authors we would also like to include caregivers in the evaluation. Finally, because caregiving is best addressed from a team approach, the authors would like to pilot the project at other health professions programs.

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