Accepted Type
Facilitated and Dedicated Poster
Code
LP4 - 03
Acceptance Declaration
Accept
Additional Information
I declare I have no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this program.
Was this work accepted for CCME 2020?
no
Category
General Call (Workshop, Oral Presentation, Poster Presentation)
Type
Oral
Sub Type
Education Research
Will the presenter be a:
Student
Affiliation
Considered for Poster
yes
Title
Experiences of Physicians in Rural Practice: A Human Library Approach
Length of Presentation
Background/Purpose
Medical institutions across Canada have implemented various strategies to address the critical shortage of rural physicians. It is important to encourage urban-origin medical students to consider rural practice. However, many urban-origin medical students have little knowledge of rural life, often relying on generalizations and stereotypes. Such inaccurate or negative beliefs may dissuade them from considering rural practice. We are evaluating a novel medical education approach - the Human Library - to increase medical students' knowledge of rural medicine and rural life.
Methods
The Human Library mimics the format of a regular library with readers borrowing books, except that the books are human volunteers who share personal experiences. To test the concept in medical education, we hosted two online Human Library events in October 2020. We recruited 9 Books - physicians in rural practice - to discuss a particular aspect of their lives. Interested Readers (medical students, faculty, etc.) were able to ask questions about each Book's experiences. Post-session surveys were used to determine the appeal and effectiveness of the Human Library approach, and to highlight areas for improvement.
Results
Our preliminary analysis found that attendees at the online events were highly satisfied, and indicated that they received valuable information from the Books. This suggests the validity of using the Human Library concept for medical education purposes.
Conclusion
An in-person Human library event is planned for Spring 2021 for undergraduate medical students. Residents have also expressed interest for a similar session. Successful Human Library events challenge the perceptions and attitudes of medical learners, perhaps opening their eyes to new possibilities in rural practice.
Keyword 1
Human Library
Keyword 2
Rural practice
Keyword 3
Urban-origin medical students
Level of Training
General
Abstract Themes
Undergraduate
Additional Theme (First choice)
Distributed Medical Education
Additional Theme (Second Choice)
Additional Theme (Third Choice)
Authors
Presenter
Javeria Shafiq
Term 1
Yes
Term 2
Yes
Term 3
Yes
Term 4
Yes
Term 5
Yes
