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The BELIEF Instrument: a preclinical teaching tool to elicit patients' health beliefs
Alison E Dobbie1, Martha Medrano, James Tysinger
1Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, England. a.dobbie@ic.ac.uk
Purpose:
The BELIEF Instrument is a cultural interviewing tool for preclinical medical students that does not require diagnostic or therapeutic skills.
Methods:
An expert panel developed and taught the instrument to 200 first-year medical students in (1) a didactic session, (2) standardized patient interviews, and (3) clinical correlation sessions with community physicians and third-year medical students. Standardized patients evaluated students on the BELIEF questions in a graded interview.
Results:
A total of 93.5% (range 86% to 97%) of 197 students elicited information on each of the BELIEF items.
Conclusions:
The BELIEF instrument works as a cultural interviewing tool. It is unknown if students' interviewing behavior generalizes to real patients in clinical settings.