Implication Statement
Medical schools have a responsibility to ensure students meet and advocate for the needs of the community. However, addressing the social determinants of health is not always emphasized in clinical learning objectives. Learning logs are useful tools that can engage students to reflect on clinical encounters and direct students in their learning to target the development of highlighted skills. Despite their efficacy, the use of learning logs in medical education is largely applied towards biomedical knowledge and procedural skills. Thus, students may lack competence to address the psychosocial challenges involved in comprehensive medical care. Social accountability experiential logs were developed for third year medical students at the University of Ottawa to address and intervene on the social determinants of health. Students completed quality improvement surveys and results demonstrated this initiative to be beneficial to their learning and contributed to greater clinical confidence. Experiential logs in clinical training can be adapted across other medical schools and tailored to fit the needs and priorities of each institution’s local communities.
Disseminated varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection has devastating impacts on patients’ quality of life, with increasing morbidity and mortality. Thus, it is imperative that a diagnosis be made early. This case description illustrates a unique and dramatic presentation of disseminated VZV infection with important clinical implications.
Background Relationships between primary care providers (PCP) and trans patients remain important, necessitating discussions about gender identity, health and their intersections. Methods Using an online survey, we explored socio-demographic and psycho-social factors associated with: (1) disclosing gender identity; (2) discussing gender identity-related health issues; and (3) comfort sharing gender identity with PCPs, among trans people (n = 112) over 16 years of age, sampled in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Bivariate and multivariate methods using modified Poisson regression generated effect estimates. Results Age, birth presumed gender, employment status, family support, and transphobia were significantly associated with disclosing gender identity, discussing gender identity-related health issues, and comfortability sharing gender identity with PCPs. Conclusion Increasing PCPs’ knowledge of trans-related health issues is stressed to improve access and quality for trans patients.
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