Medical Education Commons^™

Meditation For Depression And Anxiety, Max Knapp

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Mental health is a major burden on residents of Vermont. Access to care is the most commonly cited cause. An evidence-based pamphlet was designed to empower providers to quickly and easily help patients start a meditation practice to help address such concerns.

Using Design Thinking To Help Practitioners And Front Desk Staff Schedule Follow Up Appointments, Jhaimy Fernandez

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Due to an increase of calls at the front desk, Western Connecticut Health Network has systemized scheduling through call centers. In Newtown Family Medicine, clinical staff become responsible for helping patients navigate between two call centers in order to schedule appointments or schedule imaging. I used design thinking to create stickers that saved practitioners time explaining the process and decrease patient confusion.

Health Incentive: Reducing Waist Size While Expanding Wallet Size, Sean Meagher

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Over 10% of Adults and 18% of children are Food insecure in Franklin County and nearly a third of the population lives in households with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, an indicator which offers a glimpse of individuals who may lack resources to meet basic needs. The implications of food insecurity and access to healthy food are significant. Diets low in healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, contribute to the high rates of chronic diseases and impact mental health. The Health Incentive Program(HIP) of Massachusetts was created to increase access to fruits and vegetables …

Cbd: A Resource For Patients, Ryan G. Harned

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

An educational resource for patients describing the current body of research on cannabidiol (CBD), the current legal landscape, regulatory and manufacturing considerations, drug interactions, and potential risks.

Improving Awareness Of Opiate Support Programs In Lamoille County, Samantha Bissonette

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Despite Vermont having doubled the rate per 10,000 people ages 18 to 64 receiving Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opiate Use Disorder (OUD) since 2012, there are still numerous barriers preventing patients from seeking treatment, including confusion about how to go about entering a treatment program, fear of stigma, and many others. Lamoille County has started to expand outreach to people struggling with OUD by having emergency services personnel, outpatient medical offices, and recovery centers hand out a county-specific information card with clear information about how to enter treatment and support programs. This project builds upon this existing initiative.

Health Care Share: Fighting Food Insecurity With Local Farm Shares, Sarah French

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Food insecurity affects 10% of Vermont families annually, up to 15% of families with children. Contributing factors to this include lack of transportation, low wages, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and limited access to nutritious produce. For children, this issue is even more pronounced during the summer months, without access to free or reduced-price meals at school. Health Care Share is a 14-week farm share distributed to families who have been identified to have food insecurity by their healthcare provider in Vermont. This project’s goal was to promote provider and patient awareness regarding the application process by implementing reminders for …

Osa Stop-Bang Screening Tool, Seth E. Wolf

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Retinopathy Screening: Assessing Knowledge & Educating Diabetic Patients In Caledonia County, Vermont, Ian J. Mcclain

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of severe vision loss in US adults. It is estimated that less than 50% of patients with diabetes consistently receive annual eye exams. Diabetic patients in rural communities may face additional barriers towards receiving recommended eye care as these communities generally have lower incomes, lower insurance rates and older populations. This project sought to educate diabetic patients about eye disease in a rural Vermont primary care practice using an active learning modality.

Counting Sheep & Counting Zzzs: A Therapeutic Approach To Better Sleep Hygiene, Cameron Burke

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Many adults present to primary care clinics with concerns that they are not getting sufficient sleep. In an effort to address this problem, I created an informational brochure educating patients on current sleep recommendations, instructing them on how to improve sleep hygiene, as well as describing how to keep a sleep diary to improve sleep efficiency.

Initiating Healthcare Agent Education In Time Limited Settings, Alan Su

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Most patients are willing to have advanced care planning (ACP) discussions with their medical team, even if they may be young and healthy. Yet, time constraints, perceived stigma of conversations surrounding death, and the educational requirement of documentation are known barriers for care providers to have these discussions. Identifying a health care agent (HCA) can be an important first step to continued ACP in the primary care setting. The purpose of this project is to propose a systemic approach to having HCA discussions in a time-efficient manner that can be easily implemented as part of a routine medical interview.

Development Of A Desktop Reference For Medication Assisted Treatment (Mat), Andrew L. Darling

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

This project was to develop a physician desktop reference to assist with medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. It was developed in conjunction with MAT team members and family medicine physicians to serve as a reference of both commonly needed medical information and local contact information for community resources.

Caregiver Burnout, Elizabeth Anne Lynch

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Caring for someone with advanced health care needs, dementia, or a difficult diagnosis can take a mental, physical and financial toll on the caregiver. It is important for providers to recognize, address and assist caregivers in as many ways as possible. Providing physicians with a readily available patient-education template in Epic may improve outreach and communication with increasingly isolated patients and caregivers and improve care for all without burdening physicians more.

Disseminating Bipolar Disorder Guidelines, Vincent Nocera

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

No abstract provided.

Tobacco Cessation Support In New Milford, Ct, Laura R. Nelson

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Smoking tobacco is one of the most significant risk factors for several deadly diseases; nevertheless, roughly 13% of Connecticut residents smoke cigarettes. Most people who smoke cigarettes realize that it is bad for their health, but many don't understand why it is unhealthy, or just how unhealthy it truly is. Furthermore, quitting smoking is often extraordinarily difficult, due to the addictive nature of nicotine, and the increasing content of nicotine inside cigarettes over time. This project created supportive and educational pamphlets about tobacco use and cessation, and proposes that primary care doctors can help their patients quit smoking by providing …

When Bad Genes Ruin A Perfectly Good Outlook: Psychological Implications Of Hereditary Breast And Ovarian Cancer Via Narrative Inquiry Methodology, Cammi Clark

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Scientists debunked the belief that breast cancer is always viral with the mid-90s discovery of the first hereditary genetic mutation linked to a significantly higher-than average chance of breast and ovarian cancer. This genetic condition, called Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC), passes the mutation from generation to generation in a family. Thousands of variations of such mutations exist, and carriers account for 10 to 15% of all breast cancer, and up to 20% of ovarian (Childers et al., 2017). In addition, genetic testing uncovered a rapidly rising number of healthy people (never had breast/ovarian cancer) who are also carriers, …

Applications Of The Reflective Practice Questionnaire In Medical Education, Shane L. Rogers, Lynn E. Priddis, Nicole Michels, Michael Tieman, Lon J. Van Winkle

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: We sought to determine whether the Reflective Practice Questionnaire (RPQ) is a reliable measure of reflective capacity and related characteristics in medical students. We also planned to learn how the RPQ could be used in medical education. Methods: The RPQ is a 40 item self-report questionnaire that includes a multi-faceted approach to measuring reflective capacity. It also includes sub-scales on several other theoretically relevant constructs such as desire for improvement, confidence, stress, and job satisfaction. The reliabilities of reflective capacity and other sub-scales were determined by calculating their Cronbach alpha reliability values. In the present study, the RPQ was …

Curricula For Empathy And Compassion Training In Medical Education: A Systematic Review., Sundip Patel, Alexis Pelletier-Bui, Stephanie Smith, Michael B. Roberts, Hope Kilgannon, Stephen Trzeciak, Brian W Roberts

PCOM Scholarly Papers

BACKGROUND: Empathy and compassion are vital components of health care quality; however, physicians frequently miss opportunities for empathy and compassion in patient care. Despite evidence that empathy and compassion training can be effective, the specific behaviors that should be taught remain unclear. We synthesized the biomedical literature on empathy and compassion training in medical education to find the specific curricula components (skills and behaviors) demonstrated to be effective.

METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL using a previously published comprehensive search strategy. We screened reference lists of the articles meeting inclusion criteria to identify additional studies for potential inclusion. …

Sawubona From Swaziland! A Global Health View Of The Hiv/Aids Epidemic In Swaziland, Abby Hardin

Posters

Describes a global health learning experience with Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Swaziland.

Feasibility Of Conducting Research In A Student Physiotherapy Clinic In Australia: A Pilot Study, Scott Buckerfield, Felicity Braithwaite, Julie Walters, Maureen P. Mcevoy

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Allied health student clinics are growing in number and scope, providing a potential untapped avenue for clinical research. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of conducting a longitudinal research study over four sessions in a student physiotherapy clinic under the supervision of registered physiotherapists as clinical educators.

Method: This feasibility study gathered data on recruitment in a designated time period, attendance rates and adherence of participants to the treatment, with evaluation also of the acceptability of the entire protocol to participants (patients, students, clinical educators) and to the research team.

Results: Data were collected …

Elbow Injury Prevention In Youth Dominican Baseball Players: A Training Intervention Pilot Study, Chelsey Erbaugh Franz, Dawn Hall-Bibb, Myra Stockdale, Aliya Thompson, Bailey Biggs

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Background: Research suggests deficits in shoulder and elbow strength and flexibility may explain the role of elbow injuries in overhead athletes, specifically ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injury in baseball players. Significant damage to this ligament typically requires operative care for continued activity in the sport. Several studies have demonstrated the success of rehabilitation programs post-surgery; however, few studies have examined the role of UCL injury prevention programs. A recognized upper extremity (UE) injury prevention method is the Thrower’s Ten Program. This program may create elbow stability when pitching and throwing, theoretically reducing the risk of UCL injury. Purpose: The purpose …