Utilising Survivor Stories in Domestic Abuse Education for Medical Students

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, potentially leading to physical, psychological, and social problems. There has been increasing research showing doctors need to improve identification of domestic abuse and respond appropriately upon disclosure. There is growing evidence for patient-based teaching, using experiences to increase understanding, empathy, and exposure for students. Methods We retrospectively compared student feedback on an existing lecture and domestic abuse videos given to 5 ^th year medical students in their obstetrics and gynaecology placement, to a format involving the original lecture and videos plus a survivor in person discussing her story. Results 109 students returned questionnaires. The results showed an improvement overall in 2017 across all questions. In 2017 95.5% of the students strongly agreed that the session improved their understanding of domestic violence, compared to 50% in 2014. In 2017 90.1% of students strongly agreed the session was interesting compared to 48.7% in 2014. Qualitative data recorded positive comments such as "Personal account of DA in the group was really eye-opening, and I feel this really improved my understanding." Discussion Engaging survivors of domestic abuse could help improve teaching and improve understanding in medical students.