The effects of humanization training comparing doctors and non-doctors

Abstract

Introduction: The medical category has been considered of little competence regarding the attributes related to humanization. As such, changes have been made in the course curriculums of undergraduate medical courses in Brazil and worldwide to expand the Humanities disciplines. In addition to these initiatives, humanization training is needed for doctors who graduated under the aegis of old curriculums and for those who - even though they graduated with the new curricular guidelines - still need to be updated on the subject. There are few quantitative studies about humanization training, especially for medical doctors. Objective: To evaluate the effects of humanization training on doctors in comparison with non-doctors. Method: Humanization trainings lasting 135 minutes were conducted for doctors and non-doctors in a psychiatric university hospital in São Paulo (Brazil). The classes were conducted with the use of slides and included discussions and a role-playing activity. The research subjects answered a questionnaire with 34 items assessing their self-perceptions about the knowledge, skills and attitudes in humanization before and 15 days after the training. Nonparametric tests were used to compare the scores between the group of doctors and non-doctors. Moreover, multiple linear regressions were performed for the knowledge, skills and attitude dimensions aiming to evaluate whether there was a significant difference between genders, age ranges, marital status, number of children, jobs, religion, years of service. Result: Medical professionals and those with six or more years of service had lower humanization scores at the pre-training moment. The training resulted in an increase in humanization scores in all professional categories, but physicians showed a greater increase and reached the same level as the other categories. Conclusion: A fast and low-cost training resulted in an increase in the self-perception of humanization in doctors and non-doctors. The difference between the professional categories ceased to exist in the evaluation carried out 15 days after the training. The results suggest that doctors can increase their self-perception about humanization and reach the same level as other professionals.