Making a place for teaching about family violence in medical school

Although family violence is a common cause of patients' problems, it has not yet received sufficient attention in medical school curricula. There are several possible reasons for this delay, including the fact that teaching about family violence is complicated because there are no "quick fix" interventions, the approaches are often complex and multidisciplinary, and there may be limited resources for response in many communities. The author offers a variety of suggestions for incorporating family violence topics in the medical school curriculum, such as: (1) expose students to information about family violence in their preclinical training, and integrate family violence issues into clinical instruction (several examples are given); (2) use problem-based teaching formats when possible, since these lend themselves well to the integration of family violence issues into case presentations; (3) enrich the curriculum by the participation of a variety of non-MD experts who deal with family violence issues, and take students out of the classroom to shelters and other relevant locations; (4) teach a prevention-oriented approach, just as is taught for the areas of smoking, seat belt use, weight control, etc.; (5) use standardized patients, interactive computer-based learning, and other innovative methodologies to help preclinical students perfect their interviewing and examination skills; (6) during the clinical years, include violence as part of the differential diagnosis of common medical complaints; (7) give attention to the education of residents for consistent teaching and reinforcement of principles learned in medical school, and integrate family violence education into the entire continuum of physicians' education; (8) build appropriate expectations into accreditation requirements and into medical licensing and specialty certifying examinations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)