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A journey through roses and thorns: becoming a physician by learning from patients with life-threatening illnesses. A qualitative study with international medical students

Maffoni, Marina, Olson, Karin, Hynes, Julia, Argentero, Piergiorgio, Setti, Ilaria, Giorgi, Ines, Giardini, Anna (2021) A journey through roses and thorns: becoming a physician by learning from patients with life-threatening illnesses. A qualitative study with international medical students. Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease, 91 (3). Article Number 1800. (doi:10.4081/monaldi.2021.1800) (KAR id:99114)

Abstract

The medical students' well-being may be threatened by various stressors associated with providing care to different kinds of patients. This study aims to explore students' clinical experiences with patients who suffer from life-threatening illnesses, focusing on potential risk and protective factors. Audio-recorded and face-toface interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim. The "Interpretive Description"approach was used to analyse data. Overall, ten medical students with a mean age of 28 years old were interviewed. Well-being promoting factors were the following: therapeutic relationships, work-life balance, social support and communication, perception of improvement in knowledge and availability of advanced directives. Whilst factors that may reduce well-being included death exposure, managing emotions, communication difficulties, internal conflicts and disagreements, lack of knowledge and subjective concerns. These findings shed light on facets that are inherent parts of clinical experience with patients suffering from a life-threatening illness and that may turn in risk or protective factors for the medical students. Understanding the students' subjective experiences may aid in the improvement of the current educational programs, as well as in the development of tailored supportive and preventative interventions to promote well-being and professional competencies among this kind of students.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.4081/monaldi.2021.1800
Uncontrolled keywords: interpretive description; life-threatening illness; Medical student; qualitative research; risk and protective factors
Subjects: R Medicine
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Kent and Medway Medical School
Depositing User: Julia Maria Hynes
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2022 16:31 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Jan 2023 15:32 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/99114 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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