Medical Student Perceptions of Their Education About Suffering

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Qualitative Research
• Patient Care

Background:

• Teaching about human suffering in medical school is often implicit and inconsistent.
• Students perceive a lack of explicit educational focus on patient and family suffering.
• Exposure to suffering can also impact medical students' own well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate medical students' views on their education regarding human suffering.
• To identify student recommendations for improving the teaching of human suffering.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study utilizing focus groups.
• Involved students from all academic years at two U.S. medical institutions.

Main Results:

• Students reported variable and often implicit teaching about suffering, mainly in pre-clinical years.
• Clinical faculty rarely overtly valued or evaluated attention to patient suffering.
• Students desired explicit training in identifying and managing patient suffering, learning primarily through observation.

Conclusions:

• Medical students perceive current education on human suffering as inadequate.
• There is a need for explicit, longitudinal curricula addressing suffering, including clinical skills, role modeling, and evaluation.