A Competency-Based Preventive Medicine Teaching Module for Medical Students

Abstract

Background: There is widespread consensus on the benefits of incorporating preventive medicine into health care delivery and on the need for increased medical school teaching in this area. The substantial evidence linking personal behaviors to leading causes of death supports our concentration on teaching strategies to promote behavioral change as a fundamental skill for physicians. Description: We designed, implemented, and evaluated a preventive medicine module for 3rd-year medical students. Instruction was based on the integration of preventive services into clinical practice using learner-centered and competency-based instructional approaches for students and patients. A counseling model that is generalizable to a variety of risky personal behaviors and that integrates physician-patient communication strategies was used. Evaluation: We found no appreciable change in attitudes, but our study found significantly increased levels of student self-confidence in ability to both screen for risk factors and effect behavioral change in their patients. Students who participated in the preventive medicine module demonstrated greatly increased ability to modify patient behavior. Conclusion: Our teaching model, based on adult learning theory and integrated into the medicine clerkship, was effective in increasing students' self-efficacy and competence in behavioral change counseling.