The future of physician advocacy: a survey of U.S. medical students

Background Advocacy is a core component of medical professionalism. It is unclear how educators can best prepare trainees for this professional obligation. We sought to assess medical students’ attitudes toward advocacy, including activities and issues of interest, and to determine congruence with professional obligations. Methods A cross-sectional, web-based survey probed U.S. medical students’ attitudes around 7 medical issues (e.g. nutrition/obesity, addiction) and 11 determinants of health (e.g. housing, transportation). Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and regression analysis investigated associations with demographic characteristics. Results Of 240 students completing the survey, 53% were female; most were white (62%) or Asian (28%). Most agreed it is very important that physicians encourage medical organizations to advocate for public health (76%) and provide health-related expertise to the community (57%). More participants rated advocacy for medical issues as very important, compared to issues with indirect connections to health (p < 0.001). Generally, liberals and non-whites were likelier than others to value advocacy. Conclusions Medical students reported strong interest in advocacy, particularly around health issues, consistent with professional standards. Many attitudes were associated with political affiliation and race. To optimize future physician advocacy, educators should provide opportunities for learning and engagement in issues of interest.

About Some Aspects of Educational Work of Students with Reduced Capabilities in Medical University

The article is devoted to the study of some aspects of teaching students with health limitations and disabilities in a medical university. Currently, in Russia and around the world, inclusive and integrated education continues to develop, elements of which can be found in medical universities. At the same time, a complete transition to an inclusive education of medical students is impossible for a number of reasons, at the head of which are certain requirements for the future physician, who must have a certain amount of health, not only physical, but also mental. Unfortunately, not enough research is devoted to the aspects of teaching students with health limitations and disabilities in medical universities – the study of which became the purpose of the presented work. The objects of the research conducted from 2018 to 2021 at the N.N. Burdenko, 30 medical students served, divided in-to 3 groups of 10 people, depending on the etiology of their pathology. So, 1st group consisted of students with insignificant disabilities. The 2nd group included students with disabilities established from their birth or childhood. The 3rd group consisted of future physicians whose disability was established during their studies at a university (often as a result of an accident). In the work, the sex and age composition of the subjects was determined, the ratio of students to existing faculties was studied, the pathology most often encountered in persons with disabilities and disabilities was studied, the attitude of others to the respondents was deter-mined, as well as their own opinion regarding various aspects of the educational process at a medical university. The work is of interest for the staff of the departments of a medical university who are related to working with students with health limitations or disabilities.

What Could Be, But Never Has Been: Horizons of Human Rights and Racial Justice

The US’s authority as chief enforcer of human rights grows increasingly illusory as civil unrest brings the quotidian nature of racialised human rights violations in the US into a frame shared by authoritarian regimes. This reality animates my analysis of how an organisation I call Doctors for Humanity (DfH) finds its footing in a terrain of human rights enforcement that is shifting from a global to a domestic focus. The US is not an actual space of freedom but often represents the limit of possible freedoms. This horizon evokes something that always could be but never has been and unmasks what I analyse as a constitutive unfreedom at the heart of liberalism in American empire. To attend to human rights violations in the US is to undermine American authority and its right and responsibility to make claims about the actions of other nations. As a future physician and human rights advocate invested in racial justice, I illuminate the paradoxes of ethical action within a context where the possibility of freedom for some depends upon the unfreedom of others. To effectively police human rights from this perspective necessitates the deconstruction of the US as a space of freedom, pointing instead towards a praxis of global human rights which lives up to the concept’s aspirational universality.

Not Knowing What to Do: A Narrative Reflection on a Medical Student’s First Patient Encounter

Medicine, though fundamentally a scientific discipline, is the art of transferring experimentally derived knowledge onto the care of patients. The clinician’s role is to master precisely that process. Therefore, in addition to acquiring a strong command of the biomedical sciences, integral to the clinician’s professional duty is the development of his or her identity as a healer. This first-person narrative essay explores a clinical encounter between myself, a first-year medical student with very limited clinical experience, and an elderly man whom I found collapsed on the sidewalk. Fumbling in my clinical decision-making, I settle on simply holding the man’s hand to reassure him that his ambulance is on its way. Later, after reflecting on the event and obsessing over my blunders and hesitations, I finally recognize that the simple act of holding his hand was essential to my role as a future physician and healer, rather than implying clinical inadequacy.

Does Pass/Fail on Medical Licensing Exams Predict Future Physician Performance in Practice? A Longitudinal Cohort Study of Alberta Physicians

ABSTRACT The purpose of this longitudinal study was to gather extrapolation evidence of validity by assessing whether performance on a national medical licensing exam, in addition to practice and socio-demographic variables, is predictive of future physician performance in practice. The study focused on a cohort of 3,404 physicians who were registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA) and who completed the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Parts I and II between 1992–2017. Separate multivariate quasi-Poisson regression models were run to assess the degree of relationship between first-time pass/fail status on the MCCQE I and II, and several CPSA socio-demographic variables and several CPSA socio-demographic variables, in addition to complaints/physician and various prescribing flags. Candidates who failed the MCCQE I on their first attempt had 27% more complaints lodged against them, compared to those who passed. Physicians who failed the MCCQE II on their first attempt prescribed 2+ benzodiazepines and 2+ opioids to 30% more patients than those who passed. Conclusions: Performance on the MCCQE Part I and II is an important predictor of physician performance. Combined with other critical variables, these measures provide important evidence to aid in risk modeling efforts and to guide educational interventions for physicians at an early stage of their careers.

Fostering Europe’s Future Physician-Scientists: An Interview with European MD/PhD Association Chairman Dr. André dos Santos Rocha

Dr. André dos Santos Rocha is a Resident Physician in Intensive Care Medicine & Anaesthesiology and a current MD-PhD student in the Department of Acute Medicine at the University of Geneva. In parallel, he is also the current Chairman of the European MD/PhD Association (EMPA), a role in which he coordinates a diverse group of highly-driven MD-PhD students. EMPA is a not-for-profit organisation which was founded with the central aims of bringing together MD-PhDs from across Europe, fostering a comfortable setting for networking, promotion of European scientific collaborations and support for research and mobility of European MD-PhD students. One of the main medium through which EMPA achieves a number of these lofty goals is their annual conference, which is typically held in conjunction with one of the national associations. I met with André after the recent European and Swiss MD-PhD Conference in Geneva to discuss his experience in this role and what the future holds for EMPA.