Increasing disability awareness of future spinal cord injury physicians

This prospective study was designed to evaluate a disability awareness training program for medical students.

First- and second-year medical school students participated in an interactive disability awareness program consisting of 6 sessions spaced across 1 year. The Modified Issues in Disability Scale (MIDS), administered at program commencement and completion, was used to measure attitudes toward people with a disability. The paired t test was used to compare pre- and posttest data on the MIDS. In addition, gain scores on content-based tests were used to measure learning for each session. Participants also completed evaluation forms for each session.

Two hundred and six students completed the MIDS forms at program commencement and completion. Analysis revealed a significant average increase (P = 0.033) in positive attitudes toward people with disabilities between the pre- and posttest data. Content learning also was evidenced by an average 34% gain from pretest to posttest. The participant evaluation summary for the sessions averaged 3.95 on a Likert-type scale of 5, which was characterized as "very good." Subjective evaluations were extremely favorable, as evidenced by requests for more information and exposure.

This project illustrates the effectiveness of disability awareness training among medical school students during the early period of their training.