Integrating behavioral and social sciences components into a competency-based MD program curriculum: A qualitative study on opinions of faculty members

Abstract

Background: Behavioral, social, psychological and biological factors influence health and disease; and, to achieve professional competency, physicians should be knowledgeable about their society and its inhabitants’ behavior. This knowledge will help physicians to become competent in communication, professional behavior, self-awareness, ethical reasoning, and understanding cultural and social differences. In this regard, this research is an attempt to explore perspectives of medical faculty members on necessity of integrating Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSS) components into the medical curriculum. Methods: In this qualitative study, data were collected by semi-structured interview and observation of participants who were recruited from educational departments of faculty of medicine of Iran University of Medical Sciences. 12 faculty members were interviewed individually and were ask about their experiences and perspectives on integration of BSS subject matters into medical curriculum. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results: The six following themes were emerged from data analysis: "physician-patient interaction", "medical culture", "facilitating behavior change", "socio-cultural issues", "mind-body medical experience" and "physician interaction with health care system". Conclusion: The results revealed that "physician-patient interaction" was the most prominent among the emerged themes. The participants emphasized communication, professionalism, social accountability, and socio-cultural-psychological aspects

The necessity of examining patients’ social behavior and teaching behavior change theories: curricular innovations induced by the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In a content analysis study, in which medical faculty members’ perspectives on the necessity of incorporating BSS into the medical curriculum were explored, six themes were emerged. The results of this study showed that integrating BSS into medical curriculum leads to facilitating health behavior changes [ 12 ].…”

“…Although the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and other accreditation bodies in the world have emphasized the need to consider BSS in accreditation of medical schools, incorporation of BSS in the medical curriculum has been variable at many schools around the world [ 12 ] and social medicine is taught at less than 10 % of medical schools that are accredited by the LCME [ 11 ].…”

“…It is stated that BSS education should be multidisciplinary and requires systematic attention to cover BSS in the curriculum in order to increase students’ ability to diagnose patients in a broad social context [ 12 ]. Most publications have reported the importance and necessity of integrating BSS into the medical curriculum, and there are very few studies in which BSS integration has been described based on the different components of the curriculum (including teachers’ characteristics; appropriate educational context and BSS teaching and assessment methods) [ 12 ].…”

Humanism in clinical education: a mixed methods study on the experiences of clinical instructors in Iran

“…The professor's role is of utmost importance in inculcating students with humanism in clinical education. Thus, the academia must plan for the selection of clinical professors and invest in the enhancement of humanistic behaviors in clinical education so that humanism would restore its status in medicine by empowering the professors [37].…”

“…Humanitarian values in clinical settings are mostly transferred to students through role modeling position of professors and the hidden curriculum [ 10 , 35 – 37 ]. It is expected that human virtues, including humanitarianism, compassion, and empathy, be explicitly enhanced while offering medical care [ 38 ].…”