Patient-centred attitudes among medical students: Gender and work experience in health care make a difference

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

No decline of students’ patient-centred attitudes across the medical curriculum was found. Previously reported gender differences were reproduced. Among female students, patient-centred attitudes were significantly higher in the later terms compared with the earlier terms. New findings were that female students had significantly more work experience in health care and that work experience among females was associated to higher patient-centred attitudes. The gender differences should be considered when training patient-centred attitudes and skills.

Table 1.  Test–retest and language test, within 14 days, of the translated English-Swedish PPOS instrument

	Test–retest (n = 43)		Language test (n = 65)
Item	Six-point Likert ordinal scale	Aggregated	Six-point Likert ordinal scale	Aggregated
1	0.24	0.30	0.37	0.33
2	0.43	0.54	0.33	0.49
3	0.45	0.60	0.16	0.31
4	0.30	0.39	0.04	−0.03
5	0.51	0.67	0.34	0.39
6	0.20	0.38	0.29	0.37
7	0.37	0.44	0.27	0.09
8	0.35	0.44	0.31	0.51
9	0.52	0.60	0.28	0.22
10	0.40	0.59	0.33	0.42
11	0.38	0.51	−0.03	0.03
12	0.49	0.49	0.23	0.30
13	0.42	0.70	0.30	0.51
14	0.09	0.31	0.37	0.34
15	0.28	0.34	0.26	0.35
16	0.40	0.67	0.02	0.04
17	0.48	0.59	0.25	0.34
18	0.48	0.64	0.36	0.51

Notes: Evaluation of each item using kappa coefficient. Students from terms 4 and 6, autumn 2005. Medical school at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.

Figure 1. Study sample. Notes: Students attending start-off day autumn 2005, n = 593. Response rate 75% (Men 71%, women 77 %). T7 students attended external attachments. Medical school, Sahlgrenska academy, Gothenburg university.

Table 2.  Work experience in health care, gender and mean PPOS score among students at the medical school, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg (n = 591)

Work experience	Women	Men	Total
Extended period/many times^a	170	74	244
Mean PPOS score	4.42	4.22
A few times or none	201	146	347
Mean PPOS score	4.30	4.19

Note: ^a Number of students.

Figure 2. Mean PPOS score at consecutive terms of the curriculum. Students of the medical school at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. n = 593.

Figure 3. Miller's clinical assessment pyramid (1990).

Miller GE. The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Acad Med 1990; 65(Suppl 9)S63–S67

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