The Effect of a Preclinical Disability Elective on Medical Student Awareness, Attitudes, and Clinical Competency

Opportunities for education on disability are sparse in many medical school curricula, leaving students ill-prepared to address the needs of patients with disabilities in their future careers. The purpose of our study was to design and implement a novel elective course on disability for medical students and evaluate the effect of the course on student awareness, attitudes, and clinical skills. Medical students were surveyed to assess interest in a new disability elective and to understand in what areas they felt their knowledge and skills were most lacking. With support from our University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disability, we utilized student-garnered data, as well as the Core Competencies developed by the Alliance for Disability in Health Care Education, to develop a 10-week disability elective. Session topics included social vs. medical models of disability, disability ethics, clinical communication skills, and engagement with people with real disabilities in mock patient encounters. We conducted pre- and post-elective surveys assessing students’ self-reported knowledge and perceived competence in specific aspects of providing care to patients with disabilities. Data was gathered from two elective iterations (2022 and 2023), with a total of 16 students who completed the course. Across both iterations, there were significant improvements in scores between pre- and post-elective surveys, with participants demonstrating greater knowledge, more positive attitudes, and improved clinical skills at posttest. For scenario-based survey questions, students at pretest indicated significantly less comfort with providing care to patients with disabilities than those without disabilities; at posttest, students indicated equal comfort with providing care to patients with and without disabilities. The first two offerings of this novel elective curriculum found a significant positive effect on medical students’ self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and clinical competency concerning patients with disabilities. Further studies are needed to assess whether such effects are observed in future cohorts, and if they are persistent in students’ clinical careers.