Electives in complementary medicine: are we preaching to the choir?

Many medical schools offer electives on complementary medicine, but little is known about the characteristics of students who sign up for such electives compared with those who do not.

Compare enrollees to nonenrollees in an elective course on therapeutic touch and healing touch (TTHT).

Cross-sectional survey.

Wake Forest University School of Medicine, second-year course on medicine as a profession.

Second-year medical students who returned surveys: 22 who signed up for an elective on TTHT and 58 who did not.

Anonymous surveys included questions about demographics, attitudes, practices, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).

Those who signed up for the elective were more likely to be women (73% for TTHT vs 33% for others, P < .01). Nearly all students thought that being centered and compassionate were very important. Students who signed up for TTHT were less likely to report feeling confident in being able to be centered when it was quiet (41% vs 64%, respectively, very confident, P < .04) and less confident in their ability to demonstrate nonverbal comforting behaviors (9% vs 43%, respectively, very confident, P = .02). Only 18% of elective vs 66% of others reported being centered during patient encounters (P < .001). The TTHT students and their classmates reported comparable levels of burnout.

Elective students were no more likely than classmates to believe that it is very important to be centered and to extend compassion toward patients; they reported being less confident and practicing these skills less often than their classmates. Burnout was not less common among those in the elective. Electives may not be "preaching to the choir." Future studies need to determine whether training enhances confidence and skills and whether it protects against developing burnout.