22/05/2024
Hello! I am Lucía, one of the moderators at BUD and today I am going to talk to you about a very interesting project that has been developed in the city I live in, Valladolid (Spain).
I have been lucky enough to participate in the activity for the past two years, contributing in the development of a new generation of dietitians and wanted to bring it to your attention for two reasons. First, to share it as a tool that could be used to educate RD2B and second, to find out about similar projects that are taking place wherever you live. What I love the most about BUD is sharing our different experiences and bringing out the best of them all.
This teaching innovation project is called Humanizando la Atención Sanitaria - humanizAS (Humanizing Health Care), and has been created by Professor Natalia Jimeno Bulnes and Dr. Alvaro Díez Revuelta, from University of Valladolid. It has gained recognition at the Medical Education Chair Awards, by the Lilly Foundation-Complutense University of Madrid. These awards aim to recognize projects/work carried out in the fields of medical education and educational innovation. They give special consideration to contributions resulting in the improvement of medical training, their professional performance and the acquisition of values considered typical of the healthcare profession.
Taking into account the increasing technologization, loss of personal contact and economic efficiency of healthcare that characterises our times, the humanizAS project has 3 main educational aims:
To contribute to the humanization of healthcare: to offer a more personalised and "human" interaction between patient and clinician through the activity “interview with a health professional”.
To promote early contact of students with clinicians and develop clinical communication skills in a practical setting during the early years of their undergraduate training (first or second year).
To disseminate the results to the scientific and professional community, university students and the general population.
The main activity of the project, “Interview with a health professional”, has been carried out since the 2019-20 academic year and started within the module of Medical Psychology in the degree of Medicine. Since then, the activity has extended to other degrees such as Speech Therapy, Dietetics and Nursing. It aims to promote direct contact between the students and various profiles of healthcare professionals and teachers.
It consists of groups from 4 to 6 students that ask a healthcare professional questions for about 1 hour in matters related to the module (i.e., empathy, communication, dealing with difficult situations or patients, etc.) This project requires the students to design, implement and assess the content of the interview. This activity is framed within the requirements of the European Higher Education Area, which are based on lifelong learning, with students becoming active members of their own education and training.
Some example questions are: “Do you consider empathy to be an important trait in a health care professional?;
In a clinical setting/ interview, what qualities do you consider essential for a healthcare professional?;
To what extent do you think the patient should be an active part in the selection of diagnostic and therapeutic resources?;
How do you think the patient can be motivated and involved in the treatment?;
Do you think that stress can influence the evolution of a disease and the response to treatment?”
During the five years that this project has been running, more than 150 interviews have been carried out and nearly 800 students have participated. A network of collaborating professionals has been established, six contributions have been made to both national and international conferences and they have obtained two recognitions for educational innovation (Lilly Foundation-Complutense University of Madrid and the Social Council of the University of Valladolid).
In summary, the project is an ongoing success with very positive feedback from both students and healthcare professionals and I feel it greatly contributes to putting dietetics on the map along with the other healthcare professions.
Are there any similar projects where you live?
