scholarly journals Fostering Empathy, Implicit Bias Mitigation, and Compassionate Behavior in a Medical Humanities Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2169
Author(s):  
Brian D. Schwartz ◽  
Alexis Horst ◽  
Jenifer A. Fisher ◽  
Nicole Michels ◽  
Lon J. Van Winkle
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Unconscious Bias ◽  
The People ◽  
Reflective Capacity ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Study Teams ◽  
Learning Projects

Increases in compassionate behavior improve patient outcomes and reduce burnout among healthcare professionals. We predicted that selecting and performing service-learning projects by teams of prospective medical students in a Medical Humanities course would foster students’ compassion by raising their reflective capacity, empathy, and unconscious bias mitigation. In class, we discussed difficulties in communication and implicit bias. In this observational study, teams wrote individual and team critical reflections on these class discussions and their service-learning experiences, and we analyzed these reflections for dissonance, self-examination, bias mitigation, dissonance reconciliation, and compassionate behavior. Thirty-two students (53% female) completed the Reflective Practice Questionnaire and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy before the course in August 2019 and after it in December 2019. In December, students were surveyed concerning their attitudes toward team service-learning projects and unconscious bias. The students reported changes in their behavior to mitigate biases and become more compassionate, and their reflective capacity and empathy grew in association with discussions and team service-learning experiences in the course. Virtually all students agreed with the statement “Unconscious bias might affect some of my clinical decisions or behaviors as a healthcare professional,” and they worked to control such biases in interactions with the people they were serving.

scholarly journals Service Learning: Experiences and Perceptions Towards Students in UTM, Malaysia

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Syafiq Md Salleh ◽  
Mahani Mokhtar
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Perceptions Of Students ◽  
Pedagogical Aspect ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Career Benefits ◽  
Learning Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of students who successfully completed their service learning projects in UTM. The qualitative approach was using and four main themes are emerged from the students interview, such as pedagogical aspect, personal benefits, challenges and problems. The findings showed that service learning has great implication and beneficial for students and community and develop soft skills for their career benefits.

scholarly journals Selecting and Performing Service-Learning in a Team-Based Learning Format Fosters Dissonance, Reflective Capacity, Self-Examination, Bias Mitigation, and Compassionate Behavior in Prospective Medical Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (20) ◽  
pp. 3926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Horst ◽  
Brian D. Schwartz ◽  
Jenifer A. Fisher ◽  
Nicole Michels ◽  
Lon J. Van Winkle
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
Team Based Learning ◽  
Reflective Capacity ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Reflection On Action ◽  
Self Examination ◽  
Learning Projects

More compassionate behavior should make both patients and their providers happier and healthier. Consequently, work to increase this behavior ought to be a major component of premedical and medical education. Interactions between doctors and patients are often less than fully compassionate owing to implicit biases against patients. Such biases adversely affect treatment, adherence, and health outcomes. For these reasons, we studied whether selecting and performing service-learning projects by teams of prospective medical students prompts them to write reflections exhibiting dissonance, self-examination, bias mitigation, dissonance reconciliation, and compassionate behavior. Not only did these students report changes in their behavior to become more compassionate, but their reflective capacity also grew in association with selecting and performing team service-learning projects. Components of reflective capacity, such as reflection-on-action and self-appraisal, correlated strongly with cognitive empathy (a component of compassion) in these students. Our results are, however, difficult to generalize to other universities and other preprofessional and professional healthcare programs. Hence, we encourage others to test further our hypothesis that provocative experiences foster frequent self-examination and more compassionate behavior by preprofessional and professional healthcare students, especially when teams of students are free to make their own meaning of, and build trust and psychological safety in, shared experiences.

scholarly journals Impact of a Pandemic and Remote Learning on Team Development and Elements of Compassion in Prospective Medical Students Taking a Medical Humanities Course

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4856
Author(s):  
Lon J. Van Winkle ◽  
Brian D. Schwartz ◽  
Alexis Horst ◽  
Jensen A. Fisher ◽  
Nicole Michels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Team Development ◽  
Unconscious Bias ◽  
Team Meetings ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
Reflective Capacity ◽  
Remote Learning

Introduction: We reported previously that when teams of students reflect on readings about communication, unconscious bias, and service-learning, their critical reflection, implicit bias mitigation, empathy, and compassionate behavior all increase. However, would these gains occur when intimate classroom settings, in-person team meetings, and direct interactions with people served were lost owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning? Methods: Before an online Medical Humanities course began in August 2020 and following the course in December 2020, 61 prospective medical students (54.1% female) completed reliable surveys of their reflective capacity (RC) and cognitive empathy (compassion). Students also completed surveys about their implicit biases and team community service in December 2020. Results: Both RC and empathy scores increased in students after they reflected on difficulties in communication, unconscious biases, and team service-learning experiences in the course. In written reflections, they reported how their compassionate behavior also grew owing to bias mitigation. Most students concurred that “unconscious bias might affect some of (their) clinical decisions or behaviors as a healthcare professional” and vowed to remain aware of these biases in clinical settings. Conclusions: Compared to previous years, the pandemic and remote learning had minimal effects on the benefits of our Medical Humanities course.

Ethnographic Service Learning: An Approach for Transformational Learning

Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie A. Medeiros ◽  
Jennifer Guzmán
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Field Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Transformational Experiences ◽  
Learning Projects

Trends in higher education pedagogy increasingly point to the importance of transformational experiences as the capstone of liberal arts education. Practitioners of ethnography, the quintessential transformational experience of the social sciences, are well-positioned to take the lead in designing courses and term projects that afford undergraduate students opportunities to fundamentally reshape their understanding of the social world and their own involvement within it. Furthermore, in the United States, colleges and universities have become proponents of service learning as a critical component of a holistic educational experience. In this article, we describe how service learning can be incorporated into training students in ethnographic field methods as a means to transformational learning and to give them skills they can use beyond the classroom in a longer trajectory of civic participation. We discuss strategies, opportunities, and challenges associated with incorporating service learning into courses and programs training students in ethnographic field methods and propose five key components for successful ethnographic service learning projects. We share student insights about the transformational value of their experiences as well as introduce some ethical concerns that arise in ethnographic service-learning projects.

Service-Learning Projects: Meeting Community Needs

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverly A. Peterson ◽  
Jean Yockey ◽  
Peggy Larsen ◽  
Diana Twidwell ◽  
Kathy Jorgensen
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Learning Projects

scholarly journals Reflect, Analyze, Act, Repeat: Creating Critical Consciousness through Critical Service-Learning at a Professional Development School

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Andrews ◽  
Susan Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Professional Development School ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Traditional Service ◽  
Community Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Learning Projects

Universities engage students in traditional service-learning projects that often yield “good feelings”, even a savior mentality, but typically leave the root causes of social justice issues unexamined and untouched. In contrast to traditional service-learning, critical service-learning bridges this gap with an explicit focus on justice and equity, situating scholars’ work with the community rather than for it. A public university in the southeast offered a doctoral course that focused on critical service-learning in the context of a professional development school partnership. Designed as an ethnographic multi-case study, each graduate student in the on-site course represents a case. Data collection included interviews, observations, written reflections, and artefacts. The analysis revealed that developing critical service-learning projects with educators—rather than for them—supported participants’ critical consciousness. Findings and discussion highlight that facilitating community-engaged scholarship through critical service-learning impacts graduate students and middle-grades educators’ research interests, work, and future directions.

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