Engaging Adolescents With Chronic Illness in Patient-Education: The Adolescent's Perception

Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are a leading cause of global disability, yet MSK physical examination remains a well-documented gap in medical education. Learners frequently report low confidence in performing these exams. Medical education programmes have addressed this by engaging adult patient educators with lived experience, an approach that has been shown to improve clinical skills. However, little is known about engaging adolescents as patient educators for the MSK exam, despite arthritis being a common chronic condition in this age group. As adolescents are at a unique developmental stage, their perspectives can help medical learners develop age-appropriate, patient-centred care. Exploring how adolescents themselves perceive this role is essential to designing effective educational programmes. This study represents an important first step in informing the development of a future patient-educator programme involving adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).

This study explored the perceptions of adolescents (13-18 years) with JIA about their potential involvement as patient-educators of the MSK exam.

We conducted 19 semi-structured interviews at two Canadian paediatric centres and analysed transcripts using thematic content analysis.

Results showed that adolescents were generally enthusiastic about patient education and recognised the value of lived experience in training medical learners.

Understanding adolescents' perceptions is key to developing future medical education programmes that meaningfully integrate their experiences.