What do residents learn by meeting with families of children with disabilities?: A qualitative analysis of an experiential learning module

Abstract

The authors' study suggests that a single home visit with the family of a child with a disability provides paediatrics and medicine/paediatrics residents with insights into the family's perspective on disability otherwise unattainable in a hospital-based training programme.

Identifying What Pediatric Residents Are Taught About Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs and the Medical Home

“…The literature indicates that a single home visit with the family of a child with a disability provides residents with insights into the family's perspective on disability, helps them understand CYSHCN outside the hospital context, and increases their appreciation of families as partners in their child's care. 17 Home visits and community experiences provide direct exposure to the cultural and environmental contexts of families and give residents a keener sense of patient and family needs outside the acute care setting. 18,19 To provide CYSHCN with communitybased primary care, residents need to learn how to help families identify and access community resources.…”

Interventions aimed at increasing knowledge and improving attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities among lay people

“…Only two studies provided sufficient detail to ascertain whether potential recruitment bias had been considered or addressed (Iacono et al, 2011;Sharma et al, 2006). All studies provided sufficient detail about the data analysis, although two did not report statistical significance with alpha values (Iacono et al, 2011;Roper, 1990a).…”

“…Six articles used a measure developed for the respective study, four of which provided detailed descriptions of the measurement content (Adler, Cregg, Duigan, Ilett, & Woodhouse, 2005;Roper, 1990aRoper, , 1990bWong & Wong, 2008). The remaining study was qualitative in design (Sharma et al, 2006).…”

“…Support for training initiatives was found by a study conducted Quasi-experimental, 4 groups -(1) prior contact and wish to tutor child with ID (n = 34); (2) no prior contact and wish to tutor child with ID (n = 28); (3) prior contact with wish to tutor other child (n = 39); (4) no prior contact and wish to tutor other child (n = 38) -4 month tutoring programme -Disability Factor Scale-General (DFS-G) -Pre/post measures -Reduced rejection and anxiety associated with prior contact or no contact but wish to tutor child -Contact best predictor of reduction in rejection -Association between contact and attitudes related to time and length -Longer duration required for realistic attitudes Roper (1990a (1990a) -Contact did not affect perceptions -Sustained levels of contact associated with less positive perceptions Sharma et al (2006) USA Impact on awareness of experiential learning and contact with families whose child has a disability 63 medical students Qualitative -Student interviewed assigned family with child with disability, 2 h contact -One-page narrative description of the visit and observations provided -4 major themes:…”

“…All identified articles screened for duplicates and study relevance n=7909 (Sharma, Lalinde, & Brosco, 2006); several others employed mixed methods which allowed for qualitative reflections from participants to be obtained (Freudenthal, Boyd, & Tivis, 2010;Iacono et al, 2011;Tracy & Iacono, 2008). An overview of all studies included in the review is provided in Table 1.…”