TY - JOUR
T1 - A comparative study of the effect of the Time for Dementia programme on medical students
AU - Banerjee, Sube
AU - Jones, Christopher
AU - Wright, Juliet
AU - Grosvenor, Wendy
AU - Hebditch, Molly
AU - Hughes, Leila
AU - Feeney, Yvonne
AU - Farina, Nicolas
AU - Mackrell, Sophie
AU - Nilforooshan, Ramin
AU - Fox, Chris
AU - Bremner, Stephen
AU - Daley, Stephanie
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Background: Traditional healthcare education typically focuses on short block clinical placements based on acute care, investigations and technical aspects of diagnosis and treatment. It may therefore fail to build the understanding, compassion and person-centred empathy needed to help those with long-term conditions, like dementia. Time for Dementia was developed to address this. Method: Parallel group comparison of two cohorts of UK medical students from universities, one participating in Time for Dementia (intervention group) and one not (control group). In Time for Dementia students visit a person with dementia and their family in pairs for 2 hours three times a year for 2 years, the control group received their normal curriculum. Results: In an adjusted multilevel model (intervention group n = 274, control n = 112), there was strong evidence supporting improvements for Time for Dementia participants in: total Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire score (coefficient: 2.19, p = 0.003) and its person-centredness subscale (1.32, p = 0.006) and weaker evidence in its hopefulness subscale (0.78, p = 0.070). There was also strong evidence of improvement in the Dementia Knowledge Questionnaire (1.63, p < 0.001) and Dementia Attitudes Scale (total score: 6.55, p < 0.001; social comfort subscale: 4.15, p < 0.001; dementia knowledge subscale: 3.38, p = 0.001) scores. No differences were observed on the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale, the Medical Condition Regard Scale or the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Discussion: Time for Dementia may help improve the attitudes of medical students towards dementia promoting a person-centred approach and increasing social comfort. Such patient-focused programmes may be a useful complement to traditional medical education.
AB - Background: Traditional healthcare education typically focuses on short block clinical placements based on acute care, investigations and technical aspects of diagnosis and treatment. It may therefore fail to build the understanding, compassion and person-centred empathy needed to help those with long-term conditions, like dementia. Time for Dementia was developed to address this. Method: Parallel group comparison of two cohorts of UK medical students from universities, one participating in Time for Dementia (intervention group) and one not (control group). In Time for Dementia students visit a person with dementia and their family in pairs for 2 hours three times a year for 2 years, the control group received their normal curriculum. Results: In an adjusted multilevel model (intervention group n = 274, control n = 112), there was strong evidence supporting improvements for Time for Dementia participants in: total Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire score (coefficient: 2.19, p = 0.003) and its person-centredness subscale (1.32, p = 0.006) and weaker evidence in its hopefulness subscale (0.78, p = 0.070). There was also strong evidence of improvement in the Dementia Knowledge Questionnaire (1.63, p < 0.001) and Dementia Attitudes Scale (total score: 6.55, p < 0.001; social comfort subscale: 4.15, p < 0.001; dementia knowledge subscale: 3.38, p = 0.001) scores. No differences were observed on the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale, the Medical Condition Regard Scale or the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Discussion: Time for Dementia may help improve the attitudes of medical students towards dementia promoting a person-centred approach and increasing social comfort. Such patient-focused programmes may be a useful complement to traditional medical education.
KW - Alzheimer's disease
KW - Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships
KW - dementia
KW - healthcare education
KW - long-term conditions
KW - multimorbidity
KW - senior mentorship programs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103215585&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/gps.5532
DO - 10.1002/gps.5532
M3 - Article
VL - 36
SP - 1011
EP - 1019
JO - International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
JF - International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
SN - 0885-6230
IS - 7
ER -