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Serious, frightening and interesting conditions: differences in values and attitudes between first-year and final-year medical students.

Brorsson, Annika LU ; Hellquist, Gunilla ; Björkelund, Cecilia and Råstam, Lennart LU (2002) In Medical Education 36(6). p.555-560
Abstract
CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: During medical education and training, the values and attitudes of medical students are shaped both by knowledge and by role models. In this study, the aim was to compare the views of first- and final-year students concerning patients with different medical conditions. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD: In the spring of 1998 all first- and final-year medical students at Göteborg and Lund Universities, Sweden, were invited to answer a questionnaire. A total of 20 medical conditions were to be rated on visual analogue scales, according to three aspects: their perceived seriousness, the student's own fear of them and interest in working with these conditions in the future. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 75%. Concerning... (More)
CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: During medical education and training, the values and attitudes of medical students are shaped both by knowledge and by role models. In this study, the aim was to compare the views of first- and final-year students concerning patients with different medical conditions. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD: In the spring of 1998 all first- and final-year medical students at Göteborg and Lund Universities, Sweden, were invited to answer a questionnaire. A total of 20 medical conditions were to be rated on visual analogue scales, according to three aspects: their perceived seriousness, the student's own fear of them and interest in working with these conditions in the future. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 75%. Concerning seriousness, there was a high degree of concordance between the first- and final-year students. Concerning their own fear, the concordance was less pronounced. When the conditions were rated from the aspect of interest, for the final-year students, gastric or duodenal ulcer replaced infection with Ebola virus for the first-year students, among the five highest-ranked conditions. The correlations between seriousness and fear were lower among the final-year students, but this reached statistical significance only in a few cases. DISCUSSION: A reasonable interpretation of the results is that the values and attitudes of the students were influenced by increased knowledge, as well as by role models encountered during the clinical parts of the training. Conditions less likely to be contracted become less feared, and conditions with effective treatment become more interesting; and the converse was true for each of these changes. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Attitude of Health Personnel, Disease : psychology, Education, Medical, Undergraduate : methods, Human, Knowledge, Attitudes, Questionnaires, Practice, Cross-Sectional Studies, Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Psychological, Adaptation
in
Medical Education
volume
36
issue
6
pages
555 - 560
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • pmid:12047671
  • wos:000175907500014
  • scopus:0036275301
ISSN
0308-0110
DOI
10.1046/j.1365-2923.2002.01231.x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c0c70bec-403e-4a3f-a72b-acaf76a6a1f4 (old id 108662)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12047671&dopt=AbstractPlus
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:45:43
date last changed
2022-01-26 17:51:09
@article{c0c70bec-403e-4a3f-a72b-acaf76a6a1f4,
  abstract     = {{CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: During medical education and training, the values and attitudes of medical students are shaped both by knowledge and by role models. In this study, the aim was to compare the views of first- and final-year students concerning patients with different medical conditions. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD: In the spring of 1998 all first- and final-year medical students at Göteborg and Lund Universities, Sweden, were invited to answer a questionnaire. A total of 20 medical conditions were to be rated on visual analogue scales, according to three aspects: their perceived seriousness, the student's own fear of them and interest in working with these conditions in the future. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 75%. Concerning seriousness, there was a high degree of concordance between the first- and final-year students. Concerning their own fear, the concordance was less pronounced. When the conditions were rated from the aspect of interest, for the final-year students, gastric or duodenal ulcer replaced infection with Ebola virus for the first-year students, among the five highest-ranked conditions. The correlations between seriousness and fear were lower among the final-year students, but this reached statistical significance only in a few cases. DISCUSSION: A reasonable interpretation of the results is that the values and attitudes of the students were influenced by increased knowledge, as well as by role models encountered during the clinical parts of the training. Conditions less likely to be contracted become less feared, and conditions with effective treatment become more interesting; and the converse was true for each of these changes.}},
  author       = {{Brorsson, Annika and Hellquist, Gunilla and Björkelund, Cecilia and Råstam, Lennart}},
  issn         = {{0308-0110}},
  keywords     = {{Attitude of Health Personnel; Disease : psychology; Education; Medical; Undergraduate : methods; Human; Knowledge; Attitudes; Questionnaires; Practice; Cross-Sectional Studies; Support; Non-U.S. Gov't; Psychological; Adaptation}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{555--560}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Medical Education}},
  title        = {{Serious, frightening and interesting conditions: differences in values and attitudes between first-year and final-year medical students.}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2630004/623620.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1046/j.1365-2923.2002.01231.x}},
  volume       = {{36}},
  year         = {{2002}},
}