Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education
-
The importance of psychosocial aspects of cancer and cancer patients is now well recognized, but the means for teaching them to medical students and for assessing this teaching are not yet well established. The use of attitude questionnaires appears helpful after our experience over five years among more than 100 students observed during a four-month hospital course. After reviewing this experience we suggest ways to improve such questionnaires and to better include their use in a general assessment of teaching according to well-determined objectives. Such an assessment is necessary for improving education of medical students and for increasing their abilities to better meet the needs of future patients.
-
Lack of appropriate physician education is one of several reasons for the recognized deficits in cancer pain management. This article describes the educational role of a weekly meeting, "Cancer Pain Rounds," attended by a multidisciplinary team of health professionals skilled in cancer pain management and student physicians caring for inpatients with cancer. Educational benefits occur in three spheres including factual information concerning assessment, treatment, and attitude issues, legitimization of the cancer pain problem, and role modeling. This type of educational experience will hopefully improve cancer pain management.
-
Smokeless tobacco is an increasingly popular substance, especially among male adolescents. We determined the prevalence of smokeless tobacco use and evaluated selected factors associated with it among 8,902 students in grades 7 through 12 in the Davis County, Utah, School District. The students responded anonymously in their classrooms to a 16-item self-reporting questionnaire. ⋯ To our surprise, the rate of lesion detection among members of this group, previously judged to be the subjects most likely to use smokeless tobacco, fell far short of the anticipated rate. We believe the reason for the low rate may be the result of numerous efforts to educate students and coaches, the reinforcement of existing tobacco use policies by the Davis County School District, and the reiteration to smokeless tobacco vendors of the terms of the Utah laws relative to smokeless tobacco sales. This health-endangering behavior deserves a concerted educational thrust by health professional, parents, and teachers, with emphasis on prevention.
-
Despite dramatic growth in the number of hospice programs over the past 15 years, palliative care skills and principles receive minimal attention in medical schools and residency training programs. Northwestern University Medical School and Northwestern Memorial Hospital have developed a program in palliative care education for internal medicine housestaff. Residents, working with a multidisciplinary team of hospice staff, have primary responsibility for the care of terminally ill patients in the home. ⋯ A formal lecture series on symptom management, accompanied by a bibliography and defined learning objectives, provides a guide to the clinical experience. Participating residents also attend seminars focusing on physicians' coping skills and attitudes toward death and dying. Evaluation of the program in its first year shows a definite perception of educational benefit by residents, and enthusiasm for continued involvement in palliative care.