Physicians know far less than seasoned patients about the psychological and physical challenges of chronic illness. Brief outpatient visits and inpatient rotation is insufficient for learning about patient’s lives, impediments, and innovations.
This is the impetus behind an innovative video project run by Dr. Dan Shapiro. Rarely have I seen an example of video used so effectively as a teaching tool. In this case, it was used not only to portray the lives of the patients to other students, but also to encourage participating students to think clearly and concisely about the information about their patients that was important to convey.
The parameters of the project were:
1. Throw yourselves into their lives
2. Study the illness
3. Learn about the impact of the illness on patient
4. Do at least 2 home visits; 1 medical visit; and 1 interview with someone else in the patient’s life
5. Capture how patient adheres (or doesn’t) to their regimen
6. Learn impediments to optimal functioning
7. Learn patient’s innovative responses to illness
8. Be accurate
62 volunteer students were paired with 26 patients. The videos were supposed to be maximum length of 5 minutes, but over time, students negotiated the limit up to 10 minutes, believing that they had a story to tell that needed more than 5 minutes to be told.
Dr. Shapiro showed us two resultant videos from the project – one of an elderly man with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and one of a teenage boy with schizophrenia. The videos showed that the medical students had really tried to get to know their patients. They immersed themselves in the patients’ lives, and created videos that emphasized the humanity of the patients, demonstrating their strength and innovation without minimizing the strain and distress brought on by chronic illness.
As a potential patient, or family member of a potential patient, I want EVERY medical student to have such an experience. Dr. Shapiro stated that Medical systems are designed for acute illness but are dealing with a majority patients with chronic illness. I’d love to see that system changed, but in the meantime, training new physicians to consider the humanity of their patients… the stories, struggles and strength of those patients, seems like a good first step.
Jeff Swain says
Hi Tracy,
Dr. Shapiro is doing amazing things by using video to bring ‘humanity’ into medical care, isn’t he? I could tell by your post you were moved by the presentation. I remember being thrilled when I read his proposal to present at the Symposium.
One question I would ask you is, what can you do in your chosen field to keep the humanity of the people you serve at the forefront? It’s not always easy. I work with Cole in ETS and do a lot of faculty and student outreach. Dr. Shapiro reminded me that if he can put the human needs of the patients at the forefront of treatment than I can certainly do that in my career choice.
Jeff
TRACY THOMPSON says
Jeff –
You’re absolutely right. We actually discussed this a bit in class tonight – specifically how there are parallels between what Dr. Shaprio is doing in medicine and what can be done in Education. Just as Dr. Shapiro said that medicine historically has been focused on “You have X. I give you Y. You all better. We done”, sometimes educators fall into the trap of “You need to know X. I tell you Y. You repeat back to me. We done.” Instead, we should be looking at learning and education as a “chronic” situation… preparing students to be lifelong learners, or, to tie into what Michael Wesch said, “knowledge-able.” Perhaps, just as this experience has done for Dr. Shapiro’s students, we need to step back and understand our students and remember to let them teach us.