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. 2024 Jul 12;15(3):45-51.
doi: 10.36834/cmej.75802. eCollection 2024 Jul.

An evaluation of mindful clinical congruence in medical students after course-based teaching

Affiliations

An evaluation of mindful clinical congruence in medical students after course-based teaching

Tom A Hutchinson et al. Can Med Educ J. .

Abstract

Purpose: We questioned whether an intensive experiential core course would change medical students' intention to practice mindful clinical congruence. Our primary hypothesis was that we would see more of a change in the intention to practice mindful clinical congruence in those who had taken versus not yet taken our course.

Methods: From a class of 179 in second year we recruited 57 (32%) students who had been already divided into three groups that completed the course in successive periods. We measured mindful clinical congruence using a questionnaire developed and evaluated for validity. We also measured students' level of stress to determine if any effects we saw were related to stress reduction.

Results: Students who had just completed the course showed a greater intention to practice mindful clinical congruence than students who had not yet started the course. There was an apparent slight increase in perceived stress in those who had completed our course.

Conclusions: We can change students' intention to practice mindfully and congruently, which we believe will prevent a decline in compassion and ethical values in clerkship. The results did not appear to be explained by a decrease in stress in students who completed the course.

Objectif: Nous avons cherché nà savoir si un cours de base expérientiel intensif modifierait l'intention des étudiants en médecine de pratiquer la congruence clinique en pleine conscience. Notre hypothése principale était que nous verrions un changement plus important dans l'intention de pratiquer la congruence clinique en pleine conscience chez ceux qui avaient suivi notre cours par rapport à ceux qui ne l'avaient pas encore suivi.

Méthodes: Sur une classe de 179 étudiants en deuxiéme année, nous avons recruté 57 (32%) étudiants qui avaient déjà été divisé en trois groupes qui ont suivi le cours dans des périodes successives. Nous avons mesuré la congruence clinique en pleine conscience à l'aide d'un questionnaire dont la validité a éé évaluée. Nous avons également mesuré le niveau de stress des étudiants afin de déterminer si les effets observés étaient liés à une réduction du stress.

Résultats: Les étudiants qui venaient de terminer le cours ont montré une plus grande intention de pratiquer la congruence clinique en pleine conscience que les étudiants qui n'avaient pas encore commencé le cours. On a constaté une légé augmentation apparente du stress ressenti chez ceux qui avaient terminé notre cog96:3ur.

Conclusions: Nous pouvons modifier l'intention des étudiants de pratiquer la pleine conscience et la congruence, ce qui, selon nous, empéchera un déclin de la compassion et des valeurs éiques au cours de l'externat. Les résultats ne semblent pas s'expliquer par une diminution du stress chez les étudiants qui ont suivi le cours.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A comparison of the reported changes in students who had not yet done versus done the MMP course **Changes in raw scores from baseline, in those who had and had not completed the course. P-values are based on z-tests with robust standard errors, computed with the Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) package in the R statistical software.

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