Medical school curricula tend to frame disabilities as a problem with the patient, which can lead trainees to make negative assumptions about people with disabilities, according to a Jan. 15 system news release. Insufficient training on disability-related care can perpetuate ableism and lead to inadequate care.
“Ultimately, our work reveals how medical education may be playing a critical role in creating and perpetuating ideas that people with disabilities are uncommon and unworthy in healthcare,” study author Carol Haywood, PhD, assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in the news release.
More than one in four adults have some type of disability, according to the CDC. People with disabilities experience disparities in care quality, access and outcomes due to inaccessible exam rooms, lack of appropriate communication methods and negative attitudes from physicians, according to the release.
Reform can come by pushing for disability-competent and ableism-aware medical education. At Northwestern’s medical school, students receive instruction on disability care through a number of avenues:
1. They learn to get a history from people with disabilities and focus on asking about their function.
2. They hear directly from guest speakers with disabilities who speak about their journey in the medical system.
3. They learn from various rehabilitation team members about assessment and treatment of disabilities, as well as work with inpatient rehabilitation teams to provide medical care to people with disabilities, including inpatient rounds, physical exams, clinical decision-making and documentation.
Recently, medical school cirriculum has been under scrutiny for lacking education in a number of topics. Several schools have partnered to add obesity training, food competencies, and increase clinical reasoning in medical education.
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