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Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic has exerted significant impacts on primary care, causing rapid digital transformation, exacerbating social isolation, and disrupting medical student and General Practice [GP] trainee education. Here we report on a medical student telephone initiative set-up by a...

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Autores principales: Hughes, Tirion, Beard, Eleanor, Bowman, Amelia, Chan, Joyce, Gadsby, Katrina, Hughes, Martha, Humphries, Maya, Johnston, Aaron, King, Georgina, Knock, Megan, Malhi, Kaveeta, Mickute, Gerda, Okpalugo, Ebubechi, Oliver, Madeleine, Perera, Vimukthi, Pickles, Florence, Pollock, Lily, Pullen, Lucienne, Samuels, Ffion, Sexton, Harriet, Shutler, Laura, Smith, Rebecca, Tanner, Pippa, Ladds, Emma
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33092586
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02305-z
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author Hughes, Tirion
Beard, Eleanor
Bowman, Amelia
Chan, Joyce
Gadsby, Katrina
Hughes, Martha
Humphries, Maya
Johnston, Aaron
King, Georgina
Knock, Megan
Malhi, Kaveeta
Mickute, Gerda
Okpalugo, Ebubechi
Oliver, Madeleine
Perera, Vimukthi
Pickles, Florence
Pollock, Lily
Pullen, Lucienne
Samuels, Ffion
Sexton, Harriet
Shutler, Laura
Smith, Rebecca
Tanner, Pippa
Ladds, Emma
author_facet Hughes, Tirion
Beard, Eleanor
Bowman, Amelia
Chan, Joyce
Gadsby, Katrina
Hughes, Martha
Humphries, Maya
Johnston, Aaron
King, Georgina
Knock, Megan
Malhi, Kaveeta
Mickute, Gerda
Okpalugo, Ebubechi
Oliver, Madeleine
Perera, Vimukthi
Pickles, Florence
Pollock, Lily
Pullen, Lucienne
Samuels, Ffion
Sexton, Harriet
Shutler, Laura
Smith, Rebecca
Tanner, Pippa
Ladds, Emma
author_sort Hughes, Tirion
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic has exerted significant impacts on primary care, causing rapid digital transformation, exacerbating social isolation, and disrupting medical student and General Practice [GP] trainee education. Here we report on a medical student telephone initiative set-up by a final year GP trainee (the equivalent of a family medicine resident), which aimed to support patients at high risk and vulnerable to the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 [Covid-19]. In addition, it was hoped the project would mitigate a digital divide, enable proactive anticipatory planning, and provide an active learning environment to compensate for the pandemic’s impact on medical education. METHODS: Thirty-three medical students conducted daily telephone conversations with high risk and vulnerable patients as specified by the initial NHSE published lists. They confirmed public health messages, offered details for voluntary support groups, established need for medication delivery, explored levels of digital connectivity, and prompted discussions around end-of-life choices. Students had access to online reflective resources and daily remote debriefing sessions with the GP trainee. A convergent mixed-methods evaluation was subsequently undertaken, using quantitative process and descriptive data and individual qualitative interviews were conducted according to a maximal variation sampling strategy with students, General Practitioners [GPs], and the GP trainee. Inductive thematic analysis was then applied with cross-validation, respondent validation, and rich evidential illustration aiding integrity. RESULTS: Ninety-seven ‘high risk’ and 781 ‘vulnerable’ calls were made. Individuals were generally aware of public heath information, but some struggled to interpret and apply it within their own lives. Therefore respondents felt students provided additional practical and psychological benefits, particularly with regard to strengthening the links with the community voluntary groups. The project was widely liked by students who reported high levels of skill development and widened awareness, particularly valuing the active learning environment and reflective feedback sessions. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates utilization of medical students as wider assets within the primary health care team, with an initiative that enables support for vulnerable patients whilst promoting active medical education. Ongoing integration of students within ‘normal’ primary health care roles, such as chronic disease or mental health reviews, could provide similar opportunities for supported active and reflective learning. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s12909-020-02305-z.
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spelling pubmed-75785902020-10-22 Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study Hughes, Tirion Beard, Eleanor Bowman, Amelia Chan, Joyce Gadsby, Katrina Hughes, Martha Humphries, Maya Johnston, Aaron King, Georgina Knock, Megan Malhi, Kaveeta Mickute, Gerda Okpalugo, Ebubechi Oliver, Madeleine Perera, Vimukthi Pickles, Florence Pollock, Lily Pullen, Lucienne Samuels, Ffion Sexton, Harriet Shutler, Laura Smith, Rebecca Tanner, Pippa Ladds, Emma BMC Med Educ Research Article BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic has exerted significant impacts on primary care, causing rapid digital transformation, exacerbating social isolation, and disrupting medical student and General Practice [GP] trainee education. Here we report on a medical student telephone initiative set-up by a final year GP trainee (the equivalent of a family medicine resident), which aimed to support patients at high risk and vulnerable to the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 [Covid-19]. In addition, it was hoped the project would mitigate a digital divide, enable proactive anticipatory planning, and provide an active learning environment to compensate for the pandemic’s impact on medical education. METHODS: Thirty-three medical students conducted daily telephone conversations with high risk and vulnerable patients as specified by the initial NHSE published lists. They confirmed public health messages, offered details for voluntary support groups, established need for medication delivery, explored levels of digital connectivity, and prompted discussions around end-of-life choices. Students had access to online reflective resources and daily remote debriefing sessions with the GP trainee. A convergent mixed-methods evaluation was subsequently undertaken, using quantitative process and descriptive data and individual qualitative interviews were conducted according to a maximal variation sampling strategy with students, General Practitioners [GPs], and the GP trainee. Inductive thematic analysis was then applied with cross-validation, respondent validation, and rich evidential illustration aiding integrity. RESULTS: Ninety-seven ‘high risk’ and 781 ‘vulnerable’ calls were made. Individuals were generally aware of public heath information, but some struggled to interpret and apply it within their own lives. Therefore respondents felt students provided additional practical and psychological benefits, particularly with regard to strengthening the links with the community voluntary groups. The project was widely liked by students who reported high levels of skill development and widened awareness, particularly valuing the active learning environment and reflective feedback sessions. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates utilization of medical students as wider assets within the primary health care team, with an initiative that enables support for vulnerable patients whilst promoting active medical education. Ongoing integration of students within ‘normal’ primary health care roles, such as chronic disease or mental health reviews, could provide similar opportunities for supported active and reflective learning. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s12909-020-02305-z. BioMed Central 2020-10-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7578590/ /pubmed/33092586 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02305-z Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hughes, Tirion
Beard, Eleanor
Bowman, Amelia
Chan, Joyce
Gadsby, Katrina
Hughes, Martha
Humphries, Maya
Johnston, Aaron
King, Georgina
Knock, Megan
Malhi, Kaveeta
Mickute, Gerda
Okpalugo, Ebubechi
Oliver, Madeleine
Perera, Vimukthi
Pickles, Florence
Pollock, Lily
Pullen, Lucienne
Samuels, Ffion
Sexton, Harriet
Shutler, Laura
Smith, Rebecca
Tanner, Pippa
Ladds, Emma
Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
title Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
title_full Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
title_fullStr Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
title_full_unstemmed Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
title_short Medical student support for vulnerable patients during COVID-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
title_sort medical student support for vulnerable patients during covid-19 – a convergent mixed-methods study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33092586
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02305-z
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