"Sharing the impact of the disease": a workshop on suffering for medical students. Issue 2 (1st December 2008)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lewis, W; Hawthorne, K
• Is Part Of: Medical humanities. Volume 34:Issue 2(2008)
• Page Start: 100
• Page End: 106
• Publication Date: 2008-12-01
• Subjects: undergraduate medical education -- philosophy of medicine -- qualitative case study -- suffering; Medicine and the humanities -- Periodicals; Medical ethics -- Periodicals; 616.1
• DOI: 10.1136/jmh.2008.000273
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-215X

Abstract

Abstract : Objectives: To investigate the attitudes of early clinical students to the concept of suffering and the work of Eric Cassell. Design: Qualitative case study using group interviews and questionnaires. Setting: A United Kingdom medical school. Participants: Two whole-year cohorts of third-year medical students (n = 557). Interventions: Group interviews involving 57 randomly selected students, with exploration of emergent themes using free text and Lickert scale questionnaires. Results: Students engaged readily with the concept of suffering and were able to identify a patient they had encountered who was suffering. Barriers to student involvement with suffering were identified. Students saw engaging with patient suffering as a clinical skill. Many students saw the ideas of Eric Cassell as plausible, although few were convinced that relief of suffering should be the central goal of medicine. Conclusions: The work of Eric Cassell formed the basis of a teaching intervention with medical students who identified engaging with suffering as a clinical skill.