“Empathize with me, Doctor!” Medical Undergraduates Training Project: Development, Application, Six-months Follow-up

The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of specially designed, empathy training for medical undergraduates, based on the principles of Person-Centered Approach.Within the context of the humanistic person-centered patient care, the experiential, 60-hour “Empathize with me, Doctor!” training program contains theory, personal development and skills development. Role plays, experiential exercises, self-awareness exercises, active listening practice and conduction of a person-centered interview constituted the training.Forty-two medical undergraduates (66% females; 29% fourth year of study, 40% fifth, 31% sixth) from the University of Ioannina in Greece applied and all of them completed the empathy training. Forty-five medical students comprised a similar according to age and year of studies control group.The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) was used to assess the empathic performance, and Cohen’s d to assess the practical importance of any statistical difference.The JSPE mean score (and standard deviation) before, after and six months follow-up was 109.3(12.7), 121.1(9.0), 121.1(9.5), respectively. The before–after and before–follow-up difference was highly significant (CI95%, p<0.001 in both cases), and of great practical importance (d=1.072, d=1.052, respectively), while no decrease was observed six-months later (CI 95%, p=0.999, d<0.001). Control group reached a JSPE 108.7(10.5), similar to intervention group before training (CI95%, p=0.832), and highly different and important compared to after (CI 95%p<0.001; d=1.268) and follow-up (CI 95%, p<0.001; d=1.238) intervention scores.The “Empathize with me, Doctor!” improved significantly and importantly medical undergraduates’ empathic performance, which was maintained intact for at least six months

Qualitative Exploration of Illness Perceptions of Rheumatoid Arthritis in the General Public

Treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) within three months of symptom onset 2 leads to significantly improved outcomes. However, many people delay seeking medical 3 attention. In order to understand the reasons for this delay, it is important to have a thorough 4 understanding of public perceptions about RA. The current study investigated these perceptions 5 used the Self-Regulation Model (SRM) as a framework to explain how health behavior is 6 influenced by illness perceptions (prototypes) through qualitative interviews with 15 members of 7 the public without RA. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using 8 framework analysis based on SRM illness perceptions. 9 Both accurate and inaccurate perceptions about the identity, causes, consequences, 10 controllability and timeline of RA were identified. This highlights opportunities to enhance public 11 knowledge about RA. These findings further support the utility of exploring prototypical beliefs of 12 illness, suggesting their potential role in influencing help-seeking behaviors and identifying 13 probable drivers/barriers to early presentation

General hospital staff worries, perceived sufficiency of information and associated psychological distress during the A/H1N1 influenza pandemic

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health care workers (HCWs) presented frequent concerns regarding their health and their families' health and high levels of psychological distress during previous disease outbreaks, such as the SARS outbreak, which was associated with social isolation and intentional absenteeism. We aimed to assess HCWs concerns and anxiety, perceived sufficiency of information, and intended behavior during the recent A/H1N1 influenza pandemic and their associations with psychological distress.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Between September 1^stand 30^th, 2009, 469 health-care workers (HCWs) of a tertiary teaching hospital completed a 20-item questionnaire regarding concerns and worries about the new A/H1N1 influenza pandemic, along with Cassileth's Information Styles Questionnaire (part-I) and the GHQ-28.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>More than half of the present study's HCWs (56.7%) reported they were worried about the A/H1N1 influenza pandemic, their degree of anxiety being moderately high (median 6/9). The most frequent concern was infection of family and friends and the health consequences of the disease (54.9%). The perceived risk of being infected was considered moderately high (median 6/9). Few HCWs (6.6%) had restricted their social contacts and fewer (3.8%) felt isolated by their family members and friends because of their hospital work, while a low percentage (4.3%) indented to take a leave to avoid infection. However, worry and degree of worry were significantly associated with intended absenteeism (p < 0.0005), restriction of social contacts (p < 0.0005), and psychological distress (p = 0.036). Perceived sufficiency of information about several aspects of the A/H1N1 influenza was moderately high, and the overall information about the A/H1N1 influenza was considered clear (median 7.4/9). Also, perceived sufficiency of information for the prognosis of the infection was significantly independently associated with the degree of worry about the pandemic (p = 0.008).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A significant proportion of HCWs experienced moderately high anxiety about the pandemic, and their degree of worry was an independent correlate of psychological distress. Since perceived sufficiency of information about the A/H1N1 influenza prognosis was associated with reduced degree of worry, hospital managers and consultation-liaison psychiatry services should try to provide for HCWs' need for information, in order to offer favourable working conditions in times of extreme distress, such as the current and future pandemics.</p