An Educational Evaluation of Medical Students' Attitudes Towards Intellectual Disability

There are 1.5 million people with intellectual disability living in the United Kingdom. It is recognised that people with intellectual disability are a marginalised group whose health experiences and outcomes are lower than those without intellectual disabilities. A contributing factor is a lack of knowledge and skills in the medical workforce.

One medical school in England sought to address this challenge by developing an Intellectual Disability Training session for fourth-year medical students.

We sought to assess the impact of the new Intellectual Disability Training session on student attitudes towards people with intellectual disability and student satisfaction with the session. All students were invited to take part in this evaluation prior to completion of the mandatory Intellectual Disability Training. Students were asked to a complete a pre-post attitude questionnaire and a satisfaction survey. One hundred eighty students participated in the evaluation out of a cohort of 210 students. Paired outcome data were collected for 113 students. A significant increase in attitude scores was found in four of the five factors (discomfort, emotional, knowledge of capacity/rights and behaviour). Feedback from the session has identified positive aspects, as well as areas for development.

This evaluation has identified that an Intellectual Disability Training session can positively impact student attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities. Such programmes could be implemented more widely at undergraduate level to enhance the future care delivery to this marginalised group of people.