Purpose: Medical Facilitation is a clinical service that provides support
focused on communication, information processing, and decision making to
patients adjusting to a new diagnosis of major illness. The Medical
Facilitation Education Pilot (MFEP) is a recently completed initiative to
run, on four separate occasions, an eight-week Medical Facilitation training
course for medical, physician assistant, and nursing students. This abstract
describes the MFEP.
Methods: Each MFEP student was paired with a patient with whom they
maintained contact over the duration of the course. Under faculty
supervision, students attended patient appointments when possible, helped
with navigation challenges, and addressed questions and concerns.
Additionally, students attended weekly two-hour class meetings that used
open-ended discussion and a variety of interactive and improvisational
activities to address relevant topics such as context of care, communication,
partnering, and well-being. Each week, students submitted a written
reflection in which they responded to a prompt related to that week’s theme
and described their latest experiences in the course.
Results: Ten pre-clerkship medical students, four physician assistant
students, and one nursing student participated in the MFEP elective during
the implementation of the pilot. Of these 15 students, four had
disappointingly little patient contact, due to either scheduling challenges
or lack of patient interest. For the other 11, it was evident from direct
observation, conversations with the students, their submitted writings, and
feedback from a post-course debrief, that they were deeply committed to and
impacted by their patients. Moreover, all participants expressed great
appreciation for the opportunity to consider the humanistic aspects of
healthcare through open-ended discussion and a discovery-centered approach.
Conclusions: The MFEP suggests that early clinical trainees are well-suited
to provide meaningful and compassionate support to patients and that such
learners thrive when provided with a curriculum that engages their affinity
for expansive thinking, exploration, and play.