Getting comfortable with disability: The short- and long-term effects of a clinical encounter

Physicians report discomfort when interacting with patients with disabilities, which can negatively impact the quality of healthcare they provide.

An intervention structured around a formative clinical encounter was assessed for its effectiveness in changing comfort towards treating patients with disabilities. It was predicted that this encounter would have a positive short- and long-term impact on medical students.

During the 2017-2018 academic year, 169 third-year medical students conducted a patient encounter with a person who had a disability. Students met individually with the "patient" and completed a brief social and medical history as if they were meeting a new patient to establish care. A measure of perceived comfort caring for patients with disabilities was administered to students before and after the encounter. One year after the patient encounter, 59 students were surveyed about their satisfaction and the impact of the patient encounter.

The impact of encountering people with disabilities in a clinical setting was positive, with statistically significant improvements across all items on the measure of perceived comfort. Students were highly satisfied with the experience and anticipated feeling more confident, more comfortable, less awkward, and more skilled and efficacious when encountering a person with a disability in their future practice. A thematic analysis of the one year follow-up data suggest that students valued the encounter and desired more content on disability throughout their education.

Medical education should include dedicated exposure to persons with disabilities and a simulated patient experience allowing for a safe environment to gain skills and confidence.