Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-23-2018

Identifier

DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019224; PMCID: PMC5786142

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Patient-centred attitudes have been shown to decline during medical training in high-income countries, yet little is known about attitudes among West African medical students. We sought to measure student attitudes towards patient-centredness and examine validity of the 18-item Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) in this context.

PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: 430 medical students in years 1, 3, 5 and 6 of a 6-year medical training programme in Bamako, Mali.

DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional survey, compared the proportion of students who agreed with each PPOS item by gender and academic year, and calculated composite PPOS scores. To examine psychometrics of the PPOS and its two subscales ('sharing' and 'caring'), we calculated internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and performed confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA and EFA).

RESULTS: In seven of the nine 'sharing' items, the majority of students held attitudes favouring a provider-dominant style. For five of the nine 'caring' items, the majority of student responded consistently with patient-centred attitudes, while in the other four, responses indicated a disease-centred orientation. In eight items, a greater proportion of fifth/sixth year students held patient-centred attitudes as compared with first year students; there were few gender differences. Average PPOS scores indicated students were moderately patient-centred, with more favourable attitudes towards the 'caring' aspect than 'sharing'. Internal consistency of the PPOS was inadequate for the full scale (α=0.58) and subscales ('sharing' α=0.37; 'caring' α=0.48). CFA did not support the original PPOS factors and EFA did not identify an improved structure.

CONCLUSIONS: West African medical students training in Bamako are moderately patient-centred and do not show the same declines in patient-centred attitudes in higher academic years as seen in other settings. Medical students may benefit from training in shared power skills and in attending to patient lifestyle factors. Locally validated tools are needed to guide West African medical schools in fostering patient-centredness among students.

Journal Title

BMJ Open

Volume

8

Issue

1

MeSH Keywords

Attitude of Health Personnel; Career Choice; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Mali; Patient-Centered Care; Physician-Patient Relations; Psychometrics; Students, Medical; Surveys and Questionnaires

Keywords

Mali; West Africa; medical students; patient-centredness; patient–provider communication

Comments

Grant support

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Publisher's Link: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e019224.long

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