Dear Sir
Sociology remains a subject that medical students find difficult to grasp. A number of difficulties have been highlighted in the literature which mirror our experiences in Southampton; for example, that the discipline is seen as less important than the biomedical sciences and that it lacks relevance to medicine (Benbassat et al. Citation2003). We conducted a survey of first- and second-year students on our 5-year programme during 2005–2006 to better understand students’ perspectives about the discipline.
Our results revealed that only half of the students indicated they understood the relevance of sociology at this early stage. However, the majority agreed it was important to make them better doctors and one-third thought sociology increased their understanding of different people in society. Half the respondents said that if the subject featured more prominently in exams they would be more motivated to study it. The same percentage felt that they were able to apply their knowledge and understanding of the subject to the patients they saw in the first 2 years and reported that their tutors could better help them relate sociology to patients. This is encouraging as students are likely to see the relevance of sociology if clinicians work with them to demonstrate the context in which they will eventually use their knowledge (Arseneau and Rodenburg Citation1998).
However, it is important to remain cautious. While students may come to appreciate the relevance of sociology through its application, they may find it more difficult to think about the relevance of some sociological issues—such as power—because they are less visible, seemingly abstract, very complex and resistant to change. Students can readily see themselves having an impact upon individual patients in their future roles as doctors, but the impact they can see themselves having upon society may be much more difficult for them to comprehend. Therefore, a productive approach might be to work more closely with clinicians in the later years of the curriculum to encourage increased understanding of these more complex aspects.
Caroline Jones
Angela Fenwick
Kathleen Kendall
School of Medicine
University of Southampton
Bassett Crescent East
Southampton SO16 7PX
UK
References
- Arseneau R, Rodenburg D. Five Perpectives in Adult and Higher Education. The developmental perspective: Cultivating ways of thinking, D Pratt. Kreiger, MalabarFlorida 1998; 105–149
- Benbassat J, Baumal R, Borkan JM, Ber R. Overcoming barriers to teaching the behavioural and social sciences to medical students. Acad Med 2003; 78: 372–380