First year medical student perceptions of physician advocacy and advocacy as a core competency: A qualitative analysis

Abstract

Purpose Medical societies have embraced advocacy as a core professional competency, but little is known about how entering medical students view physician advocacy. This study examined how first year medical students define advocacy, their motivations for and anticipated challenges to advocacy, and whether they believe advocacy should be a core competency. Method This study used a qualitative content analysis approach to analyze first year medical student narrative responses about physician advocacy. The analysis included the written responses of 95% of the first-year medical students at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine during two academic years. Results Students shared consensus that physicians should advocate on behalf of their individual patients. Students had varying opinions on whether all physicians should engage in societal level advocacy and whether it should be a core competency in medical school. Students find several compelling reasons for physicians to engage in societal advocacy but nevertheless anticipate challenges to physician advocacy. Conclusion Given increasing consensus that advocacy is a core competency of physicians, providing medical students the skills to successfully engage in advocacy is increasingly important. Any new mandatory curricula will need to focus on how to engage learners with varied views on advocacy.