Resources for Teaching about Womenʼs Health

Abstract

Given the interdisciplinary quality of women's health, a unique collection of resources is required to provide a practical, evidence-based presentation of the relevant topics. While some students and residents have sought more intensive women's health education from special electives and fellowships, most physicians will not receive their primary instruction about women's health from a specially dedicated course. Therefore, teachers in a broad variety of settings from ambulatory precepting sites to basic science courses will be responsible for planning educational experiences that will integrate women's health issues. This paper provides reviews of 19 teaching tools about women's health ranging from general curricula to books, videos, and CD-ROMs that can be used by educators and learners throughout the continuum of medical education.

Integrating gender into a basic medical curriculum

“…In some cases, block co‐ordinators made extra revisions. The importance of concrete and directly executable content‐oriented recommendations, practical support with accessible education material and motivated block co‐ordinators confirms conclusions drawn on the basis of other research 7,19 , 20 . A new finding was the importance attached to the adequate translation of gender differences into actual patient care.…”

“…Based on literature and international projects, a list was made of characteristics that must be present if integrating gender into a medical curriculum is to be considered successful (Table 1). 1,2 , 7,17–29 …”

How is gender integrated in the curricula of Dutch medical schools? A quick‐scan on gender issues as an instrument for change

“…Adaptations that have been made since then are extensively described in a separate study (Verdonk et al, 2005). In the Nijmegen study objectives of a gender-specific medical curriculum had been determined (see Magrane & McIntyre-Seltman, 1996;Lagro-Janssen & Noordenbos, 1997;Searle, 1998;Beck Weiss & Levison, 2000;Krasnoff, 2000). These objectives were used as checklist or a quickscan to screen the study guides.…”

An Elective Course in Women's Health

“…Faculty members also reviewed publications about women's health courses or curriculum in other health care professional degree programs, namely nursing and medicine, when designing the course. [6][7][8][9][10][11] The focus on the implemented course was women's health across the lifespan, and diseases unique to or with higher prevalence in women compared to men. The course met the curricular goals of developing and implementing an elective course in women's health covering selective topics in the AACP-US HHS curriculum guide.…”

“…Selected topics and instructional techniques described in the medicine and nursing education literature were incorporated into this women's health elective course. [6][7][8][9][10][11] For example, cooperative cases focusing on female patients included prior required reading or Web-based tutorials, previously described by Zebrack 9 and Wiess. 10 Once the Women's Health course topics were chosen, quantitative and qualitative assessments were developed to evaluate student mastery of course competencies and to obtain student course evaluations.…”