Challenges Faced by Students and Staff in Caring for Patients With Disabilities: A Secondary Pooled Prevalence...

Disability health education advancements have expanded educational offerings across the medical education continuum, but optimal prioritization of topics remains unclear. This study sought to determine which aspects of caring for patients with disabilities (PWD) are perceived as most difficult. Participants were healthcare professionals, patient-facing staff, and preclinical medical and physician assistant students at a Mid-Atlantic academic medical center. Participants were surveyed about areas of perceived difficulty in caring for PWD in prior studies; this study represents a secondary analysis of that data. Student responses were pooled to obtain overall prevalence (n=142). Staff responses were analyzed separately due to disparate sample sizes (n=1609). Students most frequently reported difficulty with disability-specific knowledge (n=90, 63.4%), knowledge of programs/resources (n=89, 62.7%), and healthcare accessibility (n=89, 62.7%). Staff most frequently reported difficulties in knowledge of programs/resources (n=684, 42.5%), disability-specific knowledge (n=549, 34.1%), and laws and policies (n=543, 33.7%). This study is the first to report on perceived areas of difficulty in caring for PWD. Findings were mapped onto the Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education's Core Competencies on Disability for Health Care Education and may inform future curriculum development.