Family mentoring: a life experience

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Interprofessional Education
• Family-Centered Care

Background:

• Family-centered care is crucial in healthcare.
• Developing family-centered attitudes in students is essential for quality patient care.
• Interprofessional training can enhance student perspectives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a preservice family mentor experience on students' family-centered attitudes.
• To assess changes in attitudes among nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and social work students.
• To determine the effectiveness of hands-on family engagement in professional development.

Main Methods:

• Administered the 'Issues in Early Intervention' instrument pre- and post-experience.
• Students participated in a minimum of 8 hours of field experience with assigned families.
• Utilized Wilcoxon signed rank test and paired t-test for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Eight specific items showed significant positive shifts in family-centered attitudes.
• Overall scores revealed a statistically significant increase (p < 0.001) in family-centered attitudes post-experience.
• Student feedback evaluations corroborated the positive impact on attitudes.

Conclusions:

• The preservice family mentor experience effectively fostered family-centered attitudes in students.
• Direct interaction with families enhances the development of these critical professional values.
• This model of education is recommended for improving interprofessional training in healthcare.